•ltKllfT\ 

LIBRARY  1 

UNIVERSITY  Of      I 
CALIFORNIA/ 


THE   CENTENARY 

OF  THE  BIKTH  OF 


Emerson 


AS  OBSERVED  IN  CONCORD  MAY  25  1903 
UNDER  THE  DIRECTION  OF 

THE,  SOCIAL  CIRCLE  IN  CONCORD 


Rhodora  f  if  the  napes  auk  thee  why 

This  charm  is  wasted  on  the  earth  and  sky, 

Tell  them,  dear,  that  if  eyes  were  made  for  seeing, 

Then  Beauty  is  its  own  excuse  for  being. 


at  C[jc  Ktoetstte 
FOR   THE   SOCIAL  CIRCLE  IN  CONCORD 
JUNE  1903 


MAlfi  L2B« 


COPYRIGHT  1903  BY  JOHN  SHEPARD  KEYES 


PS 


EMERSON 

"WHEREVER  the  English  language  is  spoken 
throughout  the  world  his  fame  is  established  and 
secure.  .  .  .  But  we,  his  neighbors  and  townsmen, 
feel  that  he  was  ours.  He  was  descended  from  the 
founders  of  the  town.  He  chose  our  village  as  the 
place  where  his  lifelong  work  was  to  be  done.  It 
was  to  our  fields  and  orchards  that  his  presence 
gave  such  value ;  it  was  our  streets  in  which  the 
children  looked  up  to  him  with  love,  and  the  elders 
with  reverence.  He  was  our  ornament  and  pride." 
EBENEZER  ROCK  WOOD  HOAR, 

April  SO,  1882. 


MAIfi  LIB. 


COPYRIGHT  1903  BY  JOHN  SHEPARD  KEYKS 


PS 


EMERSON 

"WHEREVER  the  English  language  is  spoken 
throughout  the  world  his  fame  is  established  and 
secure.  .  .  .  But  we,  his  neighbors  and  townsmen, 
feel  that  he  was  ours.  He  was  descended  from  the 
founders  of  the  town.  He  chose  our  village  as  the 
place  where  his  lifelong  work  was  to  be  done.  It 
was  to  our  fields  and  orchards  that  his  presence 
gave  such  value  ;  it  was  our  streets  in  which  the 
children  looked  up  to  him  with  love,  and  the  elders 
with  reverence.  He  was  our  ornament  and  pride." 
EBENEZER  ROCK  WOOD  HOAR, 

April  SO,  1882. 


INTRODUCTION 

THE  proceedings  recorded  in  this  volume  resulted 
from  the  following  votes  passed   at  a  meeting  of 

THE  SOCIAL  CIRCLE  IN  CONCORD 

on  December  23,  1902  : 

VOTED:  That  the  Social  Circle  in  Concord  ar 
range  a  celebration  of  the  Centenary  of  Ralph 
Waldo  Emerson,  May  25,  1903,  their  best  beloved 
and  respected  member  for  many  years. 

VOTED:  That  the  members  of  the  Circle  be  a 
committee  to  make  arrangements  for  the  same. 


CONTENTS 

PAOE 

THE  MORNING       .  1 

MORNING  INTRODUCTION  .....  3 
ADDRESS  OF  WILLIAM  LORENZO  EATON  .  .  5 
ADDRESS  OF  LEBARON  RUSSELL  BRIGGS  .  .  14 

THE  AFTERNOON 31 

AFTERNOON  INTRODUCTION  ....  33 
PRAYER  BY  LOREN  BENJAMIN  MACDONALD  .  34 
ADDRESS  OF  SAMUEL  HOAR  ....  36 
ADDRESS  OF  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON  .  .  .45 
ADDRESS  OF  THOMAS  WENTWORTH  HIGGINSON.  58 
ADDRESS  OF  WILLIAM  JAMES  .  .  .  .67 
ADDRESS  OF  GEORGE  FRISBIE  HOAR  .  .  78 
THE  EVENING  .  .  .  .  .  .95 

EVENING  INTRODUCTION 97 

OPENING  REMARKS,  BY  JOHN  SHEPARD  KEYES  .  99 
SPEECH  OF  CAROLINE  HAZARD  ....  99 
SPEECH  OF  MOORFIELD  STOREY  ....  104 
LETTER  FROM  JAMES  BRYCE  AND  OTHERS  .  Ill 
SPEECH  OF  HUGO  MUNSTERBERG  ....  113 
SPEECH  OF  EDWARD  WALDO  EMERSON  .  •  .  119 

THE  CONCORD  HYMN 128 

APPENDIX  .  .  •  •  .  .  ^.  .  129 
THE  SOCIAL  CIRCLE  AND  COMMITTEES  .  .  137 


THE  MORNING 


EMERSON    CENTENARY 

MEMORIAL  EXERCISES  in  the  Town 
Hall  in  Concord,  Massachusetts,  on  the  morning 
of  Monday,  May  25,  1903,  one  hundred  years 
after  the  birth  of  RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON. 
Arranged  by  the  Social  Circle,  a  society  of 
which  he  was  a  member  for  forty-two  years. 

1.  OPENING  HYMN:  "THEPiLGRiM FATHERS" 

2.  INTRODUCTORY  REMARKS 

By  William  Lorenzo  Eaton 
Chairman  of  the  Meeting 

3.  RECITATIONS 

By  Pupils  of  the  High  School 

4.  SONG:  "ODE" 

Sung  in  the  Town  Hall,  Concord,  July  4,  i  857 
By  Pupils  of  the  High  School 

f.  ADDRESS 

By  LeBaron  Russell  Briggs 

6.  SONG:  "CONCORD   HYMN" 

Sung  at  the  completion  of  the  Battle   Mon 
ument,  April  19,  1836 

By  all  the  Schools 

7.  CLOSING  SONG:  "GLORIA" 

From  Mozart's  Twelfth  Mass 

By  Pupils  of  the  High  School 


THE   EMERSON   CENTENARY 


THE   MORNING 

ON  the  occasion  of  the  celebration  of  the  two  hun 
dredth  anniversary  of  the  settlement  of  Concord,  Mr. 
Emerson  being  the  orator  of  the  day,  "  the  children  of 
the  town,  to  the  number  of  five  hundred,  moved  in 
procession  to  the  Common  in  front  of  the  old  church 
and  Court  House,"  and  thence  proceeded  to  the 
church.  "The  North  Gallery  had  been  assigned  for 
them :  but  (it  was  a  good  omen)  the  children  over 
ran  the  space  assigned  for  their  accommodation  and 
were  sprinkled  throughout  the  house  and  ranged  in 
seats  along  the  aisles."  Following  this  precedent 
the  Social  Circle  as  a  part  of  its  plan  for  the  suitable 
observance  of  the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of 
Mr.  Emerson's  birth,  determined  to  arrange  a 
morning  meeting  for  the  children  of  the  town,  in 
which  they  should  participate.  The  School  Commit 
tee  was  requested  to  make  May  25th  a  school  holi 
day,  and  pupils  of  the  Grammar  and  High  School 
grades  of  the  public  schools  and  their  teachers  were 
invited  to  a  morning  meeting  in  the  Town  Hall  on 
that  day.  A  similar  invitation  was  extended  to  the 


4  THE  EMERSON   CENTENARY 

pupils  and  teachers  of  the  Middlesex  School,  the 
Concord  School,  and  Miss  White's  Home  School. 

The  pupils  of  these  schools,  to  the  number  of  six 
hundred,  came  together  at  half  past  ten,  filling  the 
hall,  both  floor  and  gallery.  The  children  and  grand 
children  of  Mr.  Emerson,  the  Social  Circle,  the 
School  Committee  of  Concord,  and  other  invited 
guests  to  the  number  of  sixty  or  more,  occupied  the 
platform  in  the  rear  of  the  speakers. 

Thus  in  1903  as  in  1835  the  young  people  of  the 
town  were  assembled  to  help  celebrate  the  day.  To 
quote  the  special  correspondent  of  the  Springfield 
Republican :  — 

"The  Social  Circle  could  have  done  nothing  bet 
ter  than  by  bringing  the  children  into  the  event  of 
the  town,  and  making  them  perceive  that  it  was  also 
an  occasion  of  the  world,  and  that  they  had  a  proper 
and,  indeed,  a  most  important  part  in  it." 

The  young  people  were  seated  punctually  in  the 
seats  previously  assigned,  and  the  exercises  opened 
with  singing  of  "The  Pilgrim  Fathers"  by  the 
schools,  under  the  leadership  of  Fred  W.  Archi 
bald. 

An  address  was  then  given  by  William  Lorenzo 
Eaton,  Superintendent  of  Public  Schools  in  Con 
cord,  as  follows :  — 


ADDRESS  OF   WILLIAM  LORENZO   EATON      5 

ADDRESS  OF 
WILLIAM   LORENZO   EATON 

PUPILS  OF  THE  CONCORD  SCHOOLS  :  You  have  been 
asked  to  come  here  to-day  to  participate  in  exercises 
in  honor  of  Concord's  foremost  citizen.  But  he 
whom  we  to-day  celebrate  was  much  more  than  a 
citizen  of  Concord,  for  his  name  and  fame  have  gone 
wherever  men  live  and  have  regard  for  sincerity, 
and  truth,  and  duty,  and  honor.  Yet  the  Social 
Club,  of  which  he  was  a  member  for  more  than  forty 
years,  has  arranged  to-day's  series  of  memorial  exer 
cises  with  the  feeling  that  in  a  peculiar  and  limited 
sense  he  who  lived  here  a  neighbor  to  your  fathers  and 
grandfathers  belonged  to  this  town.  The  gentlemen 
of  this  club  also  thought  that  it  was  fitting  that  the 
children  of  the  town  should  have  a  meeting  arranged 
especially  for  them.  For  you,  young  people,  are  the 
hope  of  your  native  town.  Your  faces  are  toward 
the  future.  To  you  they  look  to  maintain  the  high 
ideals,  to  carry  forward  the  high  purposes  to  which 
this  town  has  been  committed  for  so  many  genera 
tions.  It  is  their  expectation  and  belief  that  from  this 
meeting  you  will  carry  away  impressions  of  this 
great  man  that  will  help  to  make  your  lives  nobler, 
and  purer,  and  sweeter ;  that  there  will  descend  upon 
you  something  of  that  spirit,  of  that  radiant  person 
ality  that  set  Emerson  apart  and  made  him  a  tran 
scendent  power  for  noble  living  wherever  his  word 
has  reached. 


6  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

His  personality  was  indeed  a  radiant  one !  No  one 
came  in  contact  with  him  during  his  life  but  felt  it 
strongly  and  was  the  better  for  it.  Those  who  have 
come  under  its  influence  through  the  printed  volumes 
which  he  has  left  as  a  legacy  to  the  world,  feel  and 
acknowledge  its  power.  This  spirit,  this  power,  this  in 
tangible  something,  which  fills  this  hall  where  his  voice 
was  heard  so  many  times ;  which  pervades  these  streets 
in  which  he  walked ;  which  rests  upon  these  meadows 
and  forests  which  he  traversed ;  which  clings  to  his 
home  where  he  wrought  through  a  long  and  fruitful 
lifetime,  has  entered  into  the  lives  of  all  of  us  with 
an  uplifting  force  that  we  feel,  though  we  may  not 
define. 

To  you  young  people,  as  well  as  to  your  elders,  must 
often  come  the  query,  What  constitutes  greatness  ? 
Why  do  we  accord  greatness  to  this  man  and  not  to 
that  man  ?  What  is  its  test  ?  What  the  touchstone 
by  which  we  recognize  it?  I  suppose  that  you,  as 
you  grow  older  and  think  more  deeply  upon  these 
matters,  must  come  to  the  same  conclusion  that  think 
ing  people  always  reach,  that  a  great  man  is  great 
because  he,  more  clearly  than  any  one  else,  expresses 
the  ideals  and  aspirations  of  his  age.  Especially  is 
this  true  of  great  poets  and  great  statesmen.  We 
all  know  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  great  man. 
Now,  he  was  a  great  man  because  he  had  the  power 
to  see,  and  the  power  to  express,  in  clear  and  deci 
sive  action,  what  all  men,  at  the  North  at  least, 
were  thinking  and  were  eager  to  express.  He  became 


ADDRESS  OF  WILLIAM  LORENZO  EATON      7 

the  God-given  leader  of  the  Northern  conscience 
that  found  expression  in  the  political  action  which 
has  given  a  new  and  a  nobler  meaning  to  our  great 
Nation. 

To  Mr.  Emerson,  also,  we  must  accord  a  leader 
ship  of  the  men  of  his  age.  But  were  he  the  spokes 
man  merely  of  his  own  age,  and  for  his  own  age,  he 
would  fall  short  of  that  superlative  greatness  that  we 
believe  is  now  determined  for  him.  The  utterances 
of  such  a  man  become  proverbial.  Once  they  fall 
from  his  lips  they  are  upon  the  lips  of  all  men. 
For  they  reveal  to  all  men  and,  at  the  same  time, 
express  for  all  men  the  truths  which  they  have  been 
feeling,  and  trying  in  vain  adequately  to  express. 
They  become  the  current  coin  of  men's  daily  speech, 
and  are  used  without  conscious  thought  of  their 
origin. 

You  are  familiar,  even  at  your  age,  with  some  of 
this  coinage.  Lines  which  have  been  embodied  in 
the  every-day  language  of  the  people  readily  recur 
to  your  minds.  I  need  hardly  recall  them  to  you. 
They  are  such  as  these :  — 

"  He  builded  better  than  he  knew, 

"  The  conscious  stone  to  beauty  grew." 

"  Beauty  is  its  own  excuse  for  being." 

"  Pure  by  impure  is  not  seen." 

"  Obey  thy  heart." 

"  When  half  gods  go, 

The  gods  arrive." 
"  He  serves  all  who  dares  to  be  true." 


8  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

"  The  silent  organ  loudest  chants 

The  Master's  requiem." 
"  What  is  excellent, 

As  God  lives  is  permanent." 
"  Right  is  might  throughout  the  world." 
"  'T  is  man's  perdition  to  be  safe 

When  for  the  truth  he  ought  to  die." 

Then  you  remember  the  lines  which  ring  as  a 
clarion  call  to  every  young  soul  who  looks  to  live  a 
noble  and  useful  life,  — 

"  So  nigh  is  Grandeur  to  our  dust, 

So  near  is  God  to  man  ; 
When  Duty  whispers  low,  *  Thou  must ! ' 
The  youth  replies,  « I  can.'  " 

I  need  hardly  say  that  the  man  who  makes  the 
proverbs,  the  current  sayings,  for  the  nation  is  the 
man  who  exerts  an  undisputed  moral  leadership 
which  guides  that  nation  onward  and  upward. 

I  have  asked  you  to  think  of  Emerson  as  a  great 
poet.  Did  time  permit  I  would  ask  you  to  consider 
him  as  a  great  lecturer  and  essayist.  Above  all 
I  would  have  you  know  him  as  a  man  who  was 
greater  than  his  works.  I  would  have  you  under 
stand,  too,  that  it  was  the  young  people  of  his  day 
who  heard  and  heeded  his  message  rather  than  their 
elders.  Believing  as  I  do  that  he  has  the  same  mes 
sage  for  you,  I  urge  you,  therefore,  young  people  of 
Concord,  as  you  grow  older  to  acquaint  yourselves 
with  Emerson.  Go  with  him  into  the  pine  woods 
that  he  loved  so  well,  and  which  whispered  such 


ADDRESS   OF  WILLIAM  LORENZO  EATON      9 

secrets  into  his  ear.  Perhaps  you  will  hear  those 
secrets  also.  Walk  over  these  plains  with  him  and 
with  him  spend  a  frequent  holiday  on  his  and  your 
dream-giving  Indian  River.  Scale  the  hills  and  take 
the  distant  view.  See  Wachusett  and  Monadnock 
beckoning  you  to  their  heights,  as  they  did  him. 
With  him  gaze  at  the  sunset.  Look  into  that  deep, 
overarching  sky.  Hitch  your  wagon  to  yonder  star, 
and  with  him  travel  into  the  unexplored  and  unex 
plained  depths  beyond.  Gaze  upon  the  rhodora  where 
it  blooms,  and  "  leave  it  on  its  stalk."  Watch  the 
birds  in  their  flight  and  where  they  nest,  and  name 
them  "  without  a  gun."  Listen  to  the  humble-bee's 
"  mellow,  breezy  bass,"  and  think  what  Emerson 
heard,  and  let  it  teach  you  the  lesson  it  taught  him. 
In  the  long  winter  evenings,  when  mayhap  the  snow 
is  swirling  around  your  house,  and  shuts  you  from 
the  outer  world,  take  down  your  volume  of  Emerson 
and,  in  "a  tumultuous  privacy  of  storm,"  read  and 
think,  and  think  and  read,  until  something  coming 
to  you  out  of  that  great  spirit  shall  have  shaped  and 
moulded  your  lives  to  nobler  thought  and  deeds. 

I  have  spoken  to  you  of  some  of  the  reasons  why 
Emerson's  life  and  teachings  should  interest  and 
inspire  you.  In  the  main  they  are  reasons  that  would 
apply  to  young  people  of  your  age  anywhere  in  this 
broad  land.  But  there  are  other  reasons  why  the 
pupils  in  the  Concord  schools  should  have  a  closer 
and  more  personal  interest  in  Emerson.  As  a  boy, 
years  before  he  came  to  live  in  Concord,  he  visited 


10  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

the  town.  It  is  said  that  he  went  to  our  schools. 
There  is  a  tradition  that,  standing  on  a  box  or  barrel, 
in  the  corner  grocery,  in  the  store  now  occupied  by 
Richardson's  Pharmacy,  he  would  recite  poems  to 
the  delight  of  those  who  frequented  the  store. 

Later  in  life  he  did  his  duty  on  the  School  Com 
mittee  of  the  town.  We  have  a  recently  found  copy 
of  the  records  of  the  School  Committee  covering 
the  years  from  1826  to  1842.  Several  pages  of  these 
records  were  written  and  signed  by  Mr.  Emerson, 
as  Secretary  of  the  School  Board. 

He  enjoyed  visiting  the  schools  and  listening  to 
the  children.  He  took  a  special  delight  in  the  school 
that  so  long  was  kept  nearly  opposite  his  house.  The 
schoolhouse,  as  you  know,  was  recently  removed, 
and  is  now  occupied  by  the  Sloyd  School,  over 
whose  entrance  might  well  be  placed  the  line  from 
one  of  Emerson's  Essays,  — 

"Labor  is  God's  education." 

He  visited  that  schoolhouse  many  times  when  it 
was  on  its  original  site,  long  after  his  duties  on  the 
School  Committee  required  such  visitation.  Many 
pupils  of  those  days  now  recall  with  great  delight 
and  pride  his  visits.  He  was  specially  pleased  to 
hear  the  boys  and  girls  declaim,  or  recite  poetry,  for 
he  regarded  such  exercises  as  an  important  part  of 
the  education  of  the  young.  A  gentleman  who  is 
now  in  active  business  in  Boston,  speaking  to  me  of 
his  experiences  as  a  boy  in  the  school,  said  that  Mr. 


ADDRESS  OF  WILLIAM  LORENZO   EATON    11 

Emerson,  after  listening  awhile  to  the  regular  exer 
cises,  would,  with  the  consent  of  the  teacher,  turn  to 
him  and  say,  "  Has  n't  Henry  something  for  us  to 
day?"  And  Henry,  all  charged  for  the  expected 
invitation,  would  rise  and  recite  some  choice  bit  of 
poetry  or  of  prose,  and  receive  the  commendation 
of  his  auditor.  That  boy's  name  was  Wheeler,  and 
since  the  founding  of  this  town  our  schools  have 
never  lacked  a  full  supply  of  Wheelers.  So,  to-day, 
in  introducing  to  you  the  part  of  the  programme 
which  is  to  follow,  I  will  ask  a  boy,  whose  name  is 
Wheeler,  if  he  has  not  something  for  us  to-day. 

Then  the  following  recitations  were  given  by 
pupils  of  the  High  School :  — 

HAMATREYA  Hennon  Temple  Wheeler 

FABLE  Agnes  Louise  Garvey 

HUMBLE-BEE  James  Joseph  Loughlin 

MONADNOCK  Kenneth  Thompson  Blood 

BURNS  Edward  Bailey  Caiger 

THE  TITMOUSE  Mildred  Browne 

LET  ME  GO  Lucy  Tolman  Hosmer 

FORBEARANCE  Warren  Kendall  Blodgett 

WOOD-NOTES  Roland  Worthley  Butters 

WOOD-NOTES  Richard  Francis  Powers 

RHODORA  Margaret  Louise  Eaton 

After  the  singing  of  the  "  Ode"  of  July  4,  1857, 
the  chairman  of  the  meeting,  Mr.  Eaton,  introduced 
Mr.  Briggs  as  follows :  — 


12  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

Twenty-six  years  ago  this  very  month  I  attended 
a  meeting  here  when  this  hall  was  filled,  floor  and 
gallery,  not  as  to-day  with  school-children,  but  with 
their  natural  friends,  their  teachers.  They  had 
come  to  this  town  from  all  parts  of  Middlesex 
County  to  discuss  questions  pertaining  to  the  inter 
ests  of  their  schools.  In  the  course  of  the  afternoon 
Mr.  Emerson  read  to  them  a  portion  of  his  lecture 
Education.  I  well  remember  how  he  appeared  on 
this  platform  and  I  distinctly  recall  his  marvellous 
voice.  There  was  a  carrying  power  and  strength  in 
it  the  like  of  which  I  never  heard  in  any  other  man. 
One  passage  in  particular  I  recall,  in  which  he 
characterized  boys.  It  seems  as  if  now  I  heard  his 
voice,  as  he  read  :  — 

I  like  boys,  the  masters  of  the  playground  and 
the  street,  —  boys,  who  have  the  same  liberal  ticket 
of  admission  to  all  shops,  factories,  armories,  town- 
meetings,  caucuses,  mobs,  target-shootings,  as  flies 
have ;  quite  unsuspected,  coming  in  as  naturally  as 
the  janitor,  —  known  to  have  no  money  in  their 
pockets,  and  themselves  not  suspecting  the  value  of 
this  poverty ;  putting  nobody  on  his  guard,  but  see 
ing  the  inside  of  the  show,  —  hearing  all  the  asides. 
There  are  no  secrets  from  them,  they  know  every 
thing  that  befalls  in  the  fire-company,  the  merits  of 
every  engine  and  of  every  man  at  the  brakes,  how  to 
work  it,  and  are  swift  to  try  their  hands  at  every 
part ;  so  too  the  merits  of  every  locomotive  on  the 


ADDRESS  OF  WILLIAM  LORENZO   EATON    13 

rails,  and  will  coax  the  engineer  to  let  them  ride 
with  him  and  pull  the  handles  when  it  goes  to  the 
engine-house.  They  are  there  only  for  fun,  and  not 
knowing  that  they  are  at  school,  in  the  court-house, 
or  at  the  cattle-show,  quite  as  much  and  more  than 
they  were,  an  hour  ago,  in  the  arithmetic  class. 

The  committee  in  charge  of  to-day's  exercises  de 
sired  to  find  some  one  to  address  you  who  knew,  and 
understood,  and  sympathized  with  young  people.  It 
was  not  unnatural  that  their  thoughts  at  once  turned 
to  a  man  who,  as  a  professor  and  an  officer  of  Har 
vard  College,  had  had  wide  and  sympathetic  deal 
ings  with  thousands  of  young  men.  It  was  known 
also  that  his  comprehensive  interest  in  young  people 
was  not  confined  to  the  young  men.  The  doors  of 
Radcliffe  and  Wellesley  colleges  were  always  open 
to  him,  where  the  welcome  accorded  him  was  no  less 
cordial  than  that  which  he  was  accustomed  to  ex 
tend  to  the  Harvard  boys  summoned  to  the  Dean's 
office.  I  have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  to  you  to 
day,  therefore,  Professor  Le  Baron  Russell  Briggs, 
for  so  many  years  the  well-known  and  well-beloved 
Dean  of  Harvard  College. 


14  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

ADDRESS  OF 
LE  BARON  RUSSELL  BRIGGS 

Now  and  then  we  meet  a  man  who  seems  to  live 
high  above  the  little  things  that  vex  our  lives,  and 
who  makes  us  forget  them.  He  may  speak  or  he 
may  be  silent ;  it  is  enough  that  he  lives  and  that  we 
are  with  him.  When  we  face  him,  we  feel  somewhat 
as  we  feel  when  we  first  see  the  ocean,  or  Niagara, 
or  the  Alps,  or  Athens,  or  when  we  first  read  the 
greatest  poetry.  Nothing,  indeed,  is  more  like  great 
poetry  than  the  soul  of  a  great  man ;  and  when  the 
great  man  is  good,  when  he  loves  everything  that  is 
beautiful  and  true  and  makes  his  life  like  what  he 
loves,  his  face  becomes  transfigured,  or,  as  an  old 
poet  used  to  say,  "  through-shine ; "  for  the  soul 
within  him  is  the  light  of  the  world. 

Such  a  great  man  was  Emerson.  He  was  much 
beside :  he  was  a  philosopher.  Sometimes  a  philoso 
pher  is  a  man  who  disbelieves  everything  worth 
believing,  and  spends  a  great  deal  of  strength  in 
making  simple  things  hard ;  but  Emerson  was  a 
philosopher  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word  —  a  lover 
of  wisdom  and  of  truth.  He  was  also  a  poet ;  not 
a  poet  like  Homer  who  sang,  but  a  poet  like  that 
Greek  philosopher,  Plato,  who  thought  deep  and 
high,  and  saw  what  no  one  else  saw,  and  told  what 
he  saw  as  no  one  else  could  tell  it.  This  is  another 
way  of  saying  that  Emerson  was  a  "  seer." 


ADDRESS  OF  LE  BARON  RUSSELL  BRIGGS    15 

To  many  of  you  he  may  not  seem  a  poet,  for  his 
verse  is  often  homely  and  rough.  It  has  lines  and 
stanzas  of  noble  music,  — 

"  Out  from  the  heart  of  nature  rolled 
The  burdens  of  the  Bible  old." 

"  Still  on  the  seeds  of  all  he  made 
The  rose  of  beauty  burns. 
Through  times  that  wear  and  forms  that  fade 
Immortal  youth  returns  ;  " 

but  seldom  many  of  them  in  succession. 

"  Though  love  repine  and  reason  chafe, 
There  came  a  voice  without  reply,  — 
'  'T  is  man's  perdition  to  be  safe, 
When  for  the  truth  he  ought  to  die.' " 

The  first  three  of  these  lines  are  beyond  the  reach  of 
most  poets  ;  the  fourth  line  is  prose. 

"  I  am  born  a  poet,"  he  wrote  to  his  betrothed ; 
"  of  a  low  class  without  doubt,  yet  a  poet.  That  is 
my  nature  and  vocation.  My  singing,  be  sure,  is 
very  husky,  and  is,  for  the  most  part,  in  prose." 
"  He  lamented  his  hard  fate,"  says  his  biographer, 
Mr.  Cabot,  "  in  being  only  half  a  bard  ;  or,  as  he 
wrote  to  Carlyle,  *  not  a  poet,  but  a  lover  of  poetry 
and  poets,  and  merely  serving  as  writer,  etc,  in  this 
empty  America  before  the  arrival  of  the  poets.' ' 
He  questioned  whether  to  print  his  poems,  "  uncer 
tain  always,"  he  wrote,  "  whether  I  have  one  true 
spark  of  that  fire  which  burns  in  verse ;  "  and  in  a 


16  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

little  poem,  called  "  The  Test,"  lie  says  that  in  some 
five  hundred  of  his  verses, 

"  Five  lines  lasted,  sound  and  true." 

When  he  wrote  prose,  he  thought  of  a  sentence  by 
itself,  and  not  of  its  connection  with  other  sentences ; 
and  when  he  wrote  verse,  he  thought,  it  would  seem, 
of  the  form  of  each  line,  without  much  attention  to 
the  form  or  the  length  of  its  neighbors,  or  even  to 
its  own  smoothness,  —  he  whose  ear  for  a  prose  sen 
tence  was  trained  so  delicately. 

Yet  I,  for  one,  would  give  up  any  other  poetry  of 
America  rather  than  Emerson's ;  and  I  am  certain 
that  one  secret  of  his  power  over  men  and  women 
was  his  belief  that  every  human  soul  is  poetry  and 
a  poet,  and  his  waking  of  men  and  women  to  that 
belief.  He  had  beyond  other  men  a  poet's  heart ; 
and  if,  as  Carlyle  says,  to  see  deeply  is  to  see  music 
ally,  and  poetry  is  musical  thought,  he  is  a  poet  of 
poets. 

"  God  hid  the  whole  world  in  thy  heart," 

says  Emerson.  "The  poet,"  he  says  elsewhere, 
"knows  why  the  plain  or  meadow  of  space  was 
strown  with  these  flowers  we  call  suns,  and  moons, 
and  stars  ;  why  the  great  deep  is  adorned  with  ani 
mals,  with  men  and  gods." 

Nature  he  lived  with ;  and  when  he  wrote  of  her, 
he  wrote  as  one  who  knew  her  as  his  closest  friend. 
"  My  book  should  smell  of  pines,"  he  said. 


ADDRESS  OF  LE  BARON  RUSSELL  BRIGGS    17 

"  To  read  the  sense  the  woods  impart 
You  must  bring  the  throbbing  heart." 

"  Sheen  will  tarnish,  honey  cloy, 
And  merry  is  only  a  mask  of  sad, 
But,  sober  on  a  fund  of  joy, 
The  woods  at  heart  are  glad." 

"  Hast  thou  named  all  the  birds  without  a  gun  ?, 
Loved  the  wood-rose  and  left  it  on  its  stalk  ? 


O  be  my  friend,  and  teach  me  to  be  thine." 

"  Thou  "  [the  poet],  he  said,  "  shalt  have  the  whole 
land  for  thy  park  and  manor,  the  sea  for  thy  bath 
and  navigation,  without  tax  and  without  envy ;  the 
woods  and  the  rivers  thou  shalt  own ;  and  thou  shalt 
possess  that  wherein  others  are  only  tenants  and 
boarders.  Thou  true  land-lord !  sea-lord !  air-lord ! 
Wherever  snow  falls,  or  water  flows,  or  birds  fly, 
wherever  day  and  night  meet  in  twilight,  wherever 
the  blue  heaven  is  hung  by  clouds  or  sown  with 
stars,  wherever  are  forms  with  transparent  bound 
aries,  wherever  are  outlets  into  celestial  space,  wher 
ever  is  danger  and  awe  and  love,  there  is  Beauty, 
plenteous  as  rain,  shed  for  thee ;  and  though  thou 
shouldst  walk  the  world  over,  thou  shalt  not  be  able 
to  find  a  condition  inopportune  or  ignoble." 

The  poet  is  not  only  a  seer,  he  is  a  hearer  :  — 

"  Let  me  go  where'er  I  will 
I  hear  a  sky-born  music  still  : 
It  sounds  from  all  things  old, 
It  sounds  from  all  things  young, 


18  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

From  all  that 's  fair,  from  all  that 's  foul, 
Peals  out  a  cheerful  song. 
It  is  not  only  in  the  rose, 
It  is  not  only  in  the  bird, 
Not  only  where  the  rainbow  glows, 
Nor  in  the  song  of  woman  heard, 
But  in  the  darkest,  meanest  things 
There  alway,  alway  something  sings. 
JT  is  not  in  the  high  stars  alone, 
Nor  in  the  cups  of  budding  flowers, 
Nor  in  the  red-breast's  mellow  tone, 
Nor  in  the  bow  that  smiles  in  showers, 
But  in  the  mud  and  scum  of  things 
There  alway,  alway  something  sings." 

Yet  it  was  not  cheerfulness  that  made  Emerson  a 
poet ;  and  certainly  it  was  not  music,  in  the  common 
understanding  o£  the  term :  it  was  high  thought, 
joined  with  a  wonderful  gift  —  an  almost  inspired 
sense  —  of  the  right  word ;  a  gift  not  always  his,  but 
his  so  often  that  he  has  said  more  memorable  things 
than  any  other  American.  You  can  find  no  higher 
simplicity  in  the  fitting  of  word  to  thought :  — 

"  Though  love  repine  and  reason  chafe, 
There  came  a  voice  without  reply." 

While  I  speak  of  the  poetry  in  him  and  the  love 
of  nature,  let  me  read  what  he  wrote  to  a  little  girl  of 
thirteen  who  looked  up  to  him  then  and  always :  — 

MY  DEAR  LUCIA  :  —  I  am  afraid  you  think  me 
very  ungrateful  for  the  good  letters  which  I  begged  for 
and  which  are  so  long  in  coming  to  me,  or  that  I  am 


ADDRESS  OF  LE  BARON   RUSSELL  BRIGGS    19 

malicious  and  mean  to  make  you  wait  as  long  for  an 
answer ;  but,  to  tell  you  the  truth,  I  have  had  so  many 
"  composition  lessons  "  set  me  lately,  that  I  am  sure 
that  no  scholar  of  Mr.  Moore's  has  had  less  spare 
time.  Otherwise  I  should  have  written  instantly ;  for 
I  have  an  immense  curiosity  for  Plymouth  news,  and 
have  a  great  regard  for  my  young  correspondent.  I 
would  gladly  know  what  books  Lucia  likes  to  read 
when  nobody  advises  her,  and  most  of  all  what  her 
thoughts  are  when  she  walks  alone  or  sits  alone. 
For,  though  I  know  that  Lucia  is  the  happiest  of 
girls  in  having  in  her  sister  so  wise  and  kind  a  guide, 
yet  even  her  aid  must  stop  when  she  has  put  the 
book  before  you  :  neither  sister  nor  brother  nor  mo 
ther  nor  father  can  think  for  us :  in  the  little  private 
chapel  of  your  own  mind  none  but  God  and  you  can 
see  the  happy  thoughts  that  follow  each  other,  the 
beautiful  affections  that  spring  there,  the  little  silent 
hymns  that  are  sung  there  at  morning  and  at  even 
ing.  And  I  hope  that  every  sun  that  shines,  every 
star  that  rises,  every  wind  that  blows  upon  you  will 
only  bring  you  better  thoughts  and  sweeter  music. 
Have  you  found  out  that  Nature  is  always  talking  to 
you,  especially  when  you  are  alone,  though  she  has 
not  the  gift  of  articulate  speech  ?  Have  you  found 
out  what  that  great  gray  old  ocean  that  is  always  in 
your  sight  says?  Listen.  And  what  the  withered 
leaves  that  shiver  and  chatter  in  the  cold  March 
wind  ?  Only  listen.  The  Wind  is  the  poet  of  the 
World,  and  sometimes  he  sings  very  pretty  summer 


20  THE   EMERSON  CENTENARY 

ballads,  and  sometimes  very  terrible  odes  and  dirges. 
But  if  you  will  not  tell  me  the  little  solitary  thoughts 
that  I  am  asking  for,  what  Nature  says  to  you,  and 
what  you  say  to  Nature,  at  least  you  can  tell  me 
about  your  books,  —  what  you  like  the  least  and 
what  the  best,  —  the  new  studies,  —  the  drawing  and 
the  music  and  the  dancing,  —  and  fail  not  to  write 
to  your  friend, 

K.  WALDO  EMERSON. 

His  "  immense  curiosity  for  Plymouth  news  "  is 
not  surprising ;  for  he  wrote  this  letter  shortly  be 
fore  his  marriage  with  Miss  Jackson,  of  Plymouth. 
The  "  wise  and  kind  "  sister  of  his  little  correspond 
ent  was  Miss  Jackson's  closest  friend,  and  stood  up 
with  her  at  the  wedding. 

Emerson  was  also  a  patriot,  a  man  who  loved  his 
country,  and  longed  for  it  to  do  right.  "  One  thing," 
he  says,  "  is  plain  for  all  men  of  common  sense  and 
common  conscience,  that  here,  here  in  America,  is 
the  home  of  man."  "  America  is  a  poem  in  our  eyes," 
"  its  ample  geography  dazzles  the  imagination,  and 
it  will  not  wait  long  for  metres." 

"  For  He  that  flung  the  broad  blue  fold 
O'ermantling  land  and  sea, 
One  third  part  of  the  sky  unrolled 
For  the  banner  of  the  free." 

"  For  he  that  worketh  high  and  wise 
Nor  pauses  in  his  plan, 


ADDRESS  OF  LE  BARON  RUSSELL  BRIGGS    21 

AVill  take  the  sun  out  of  the  skies 
Ere  freedom  out  of  man." 

Yet  his  greatest  patriotic  poem  is  not  the  Fourth 
of  July  Ode,  from  which  I  have  been  quoting,  — 

("O  tenderly  the  haughty  day 
Fills  his  blue  urn  with  fire,") 

and  not  the  Concord  Hymn,  never  so  familiar  that 
we  can  read  without  a  thrill,  — 

"  Here  once  the  embattled  farmers  stood, 
And  fired  the  shot  heard  round  the  world." 

His  greatest  patriotic  poem  is  Voluntaries,  which 
treats  of  slavery  and  the  conflict  between  North  and 
South.  Freedom  loves  the  North  ;  — 

"  The  snowflake  is  her  banner's  star  ; 
Her  stripes  the  boreal  streamer  are." 

It  is  this  poem  that  answers  the  terrible  question  ;  — 

"  Who  shall  nerve  heroic  boys 
To  hazard  all  in  Freedom's  fight  ?  " 

with  that  mighty  quatrain,  — 

"  So  nigh  is  grandeur  to  our  dust, 
So  near  is  God  to  man, 
When  Duty  whispers  low,  '  Thou  must/ 
The  youth  replies,  •  I  can.' " 

Yet  Emerson  is  greatest,  not  as  philosopher,  poet, 
or  patriot,  but  as  helper  of  men.  He  made  men 
better  by  simply  walking  among  them.  I  have 
spoken  of  his  face  as  "  through-shine,"  as  transfigured 


22  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

with  love  and  refinement  and  wisdom,  with  the 
vision  that  shall  not  fade,  — 

"  And  never  poor  beseeching  glance 
Shamed  that  sculptured  countenance." 

It  is  much  to  remember  him  as  I  do,  even  in  his  old 
age ;  to  have  lived  with  those  to  whom  he  was  "  Mr. 
Emerson,"  who  had  known  him  early,  and  who  loved 
him  as  they  loved  no  other  man.  Some  of  you  may 
secretly  wonder  whether  he  was  all  that  your  elders 
have  called  him,  —  just  as  I  used  to  wonder  whether 
the  Parthenon,  the  great  temple  at  Athens,  was 
not  Professor  Norton's  building  rather  than  mine, 
whether  it  would  appeal  to  such  as  I.  When  I  saw 
the  Parthenon,  even  in  its  ruin,  I  accepted  it  in 
stantly  and  forever;  and,  if  you  could  have  seen 
Emerson,  even  in  his  enfeebled  old  age,  you  would 
have  accepted  him. 

"  No  spring  nor  summer's  beauty  hath  such  grace 
As  I  have  seen  in  one  autumnal  face." 

Emerson's  face  was  the  highest  and  the  loveliest  and 
the  most  "  through-shine,"  because  his  life  was  all 
this.  "  Is  it  so  bad  ?  "  he  wrote  to  a  friend  who  had 
said  that  "  no  one  would  dare  to  uncover  the  thoughts 
of  a  single  hour,"  —  "  Is  it  so  bad  ?  I  own  that  to  a 
witness  worse  than  myself  and  less  intelligent  I 
should  not  willingly  put  a  window  into  my  breast. 
But  to  a  witness  more  intelligent  and  virtuous  than 
I,  or  to  one  precisely  as  intelligent  and  well  inten- 
tioned,  I  have  no  objection  to  uncover  my  heart." 


ADDRESS  OF  LE   BARON  RUSSELL  BRIGGS    23 

"  He  was  right,"  says  Mr.  Cabot,  "  lie  could  only 
have  gained  by  it."  "  It  was  good,"  says  Hawthorne 
in  a  passage  that  Mr.  Cabot  quotes,  "  to  meet  him  in 
the  wood-paths  or  sometimes  in  our  avenue  with  that 
pure  intellectual  gleam  diffusing  about  his  presence 
like  the  garment  of  a  shining  one ;  and  he,  so  quiet, 
so  simple,  so  without  pretension,  encountering  each 
man  alive  as  if  expecting  to  receive  more  than  he 
would  impart.  It  was  impossible  to  dwell  in  his 
vicinity  without  inhaling  more  or  less  the  mountain 
atmosphere  of  his  lofty  thought." 

Emerson  himself  has  told  us  that  "  Rectitude  scat 
ters  favors  on  every  side  without  knowing  it,  and 
receives  with  wonder  the  thanks  of  all  people."  So 
it  was  with  him ;  as  it  is  written  of  one  whom  no 
man  was  more  like,  "  There  went  virtue  out  of 
him  and  healed  them  all."  He  who  knew  sorrow 
yet  was  glad,  who  knew  self-distrust  yet  stood  self- 
reliant,  who  knew  weakness  yet  remained  strong, 
who  knew  bitterness  yet  kept  sweet,  whose  love  of 
man  and  of  nature  and  of  nature  in  man,  shone 
through  his  face,  and  through  every  page  he  wrote, 
—  he  seemed  to  those  near  him  the  very  prophet  of 
God,  preaching  hope,  freedom,  courage,  the  glory  of 
a  high  and  simple  life.  "  The  sublime  vision,"  he 
says,  "  comes  to  the  pure  and  simple  soul  in  a  clean 
and  chaste  body."  "  If  we  live  truly,  we  shall  see 
truly.  It  is  as  easy  for  the  strong  man  to  be  strong 
as  it  is  for  the  weak  to  be  weak." 


24  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

"  Teach  me  your  mood,  O  patient  stars  ! 
Who  climb  each  night  the  ancient  sky, 
Leaving  on  space  no  shade,  no  scars, 
No  trace  of  age,  no  fear  to  die." 

In  his  presence  weak  men  were  ashamed  that  they 
had  ever  wondered  whether  it  was  worth  while  to 
live ;  for  in  his  presence,  even  in  the  presence  of 
what  he  had  written,  it  was  harder  to  be  a  coward 
than  to  be  brave. 

Of  young  people  —  not  children,  but  young  men 
and  women  —  he  was  the  supreme  helper  ;  and  we 
must  remember  that  it  was  not  only  neighbors  and 
friends  who  loved  him,  not  only  those  that  touched 
the  hem  of  his  garment  who  were  made  whole.  His 
voice,  his  manner,  his  presence,  charmed  and  refined 
all  who  came  near  him ;  but  his  written  words  put 
courage  into  ten  thousand  hearts. 

"  Trust  thyself ;  every  heart  vibrates  to  that  iron 
string." 

"  We  will  walk  on  our  own  feet ;  we  will  work 
with  our  own  hands  ;  we  will  speak  our  own  minds." 

"  If  the  single  man  plant  himself  indomitably  on 
his  instincts  and  there  abide,  the  huge  world  will 
come  round  to  him." 

"  We  are  parlor  soldiers.  We  shun  the  rugged 
battle  of  fate  where  strength  is  born." 

"  But  we  sit  and  weep  in  vain.  The  voice  of  the 
Almighty  saith,  '  Up  and  onward  forever  more  ! ' : 

"  Man  is  timid  and  apologetic ;  he  is  no  longer 
upright ;  he  dares  not  say,  ' I  think,'  'I  am,'  but 


ADDRESS  OF  LE  BARON  RUSSELL  BRIGGS    25 

quotes  some  saint  or  sage.  He  is  ashamed  before 
the  blade  of  grass  or  the  blowing  rose.  These  roses 
under  my  window  make  no  reference  to  former  roses 
or  to  better  ones ;  they  are  for  what  they  are ;  they 
exist  with  God  to-day." 

"  I  call  upon  you,  young  men,  to  obey  your  heart 
and  be  the  nobility  of  this  land." 

Here  is  the  star  to  which  many  an  awkward  and 
timid  country  lad  has  hitched  his  wagon  ;  the  strong 
and  steady  light  to  which  the  lights  that  flickered  in 
a  thousand  hearts  have  flashed  their  bravest  answer. 
This  gentle  scholar  was  a  man,  and  a  man  who 
inspired  others  with  his  own  manliness.  There  was 
in  his  philosophy  no  room  for  the  weak  and  lazy. 
With  all  his  visions  he  had  a  keen  sense  of  the 
value  of  time,  and  expressed  it  (with  more  truth 
than  poetry)  in  "  The  Visit :  "  - 

"  Askest,  «  How  long  thoii  shalt  stay  ? ' 
Devastator  of  the  day  1  " 

"  Do  your  work,"  he  says,  "  and  I  shall  know 
you.  Do  your  work  and  you  shall  reinforce  yourself. 
Do  that  which  is  assigned  you,  and  you  cannot  hope 
too  much  or  dare  too  much." 

"  The  distinction  and  end  of  a  soundly  constituted 
man  is  his  labor.  Use  is  inscribed  on  all  his  facul 
ties.  Use  is  the  end  to  which  he  exists.  As  the  tree 
exists  for  its  fruit,  so  a  man  for  his  work.  A  fruitless 
plant,  an  idle  animal,  does  not  stand  in  the  uni- 


26  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

He  believed  in  work  that  left  no  time  for  worry 
ing:  — 

"  But  blest  is  he  who  playing  deep  yet  haply  asks  not  why, 
Too  busied  with  the  crowded  hour  to  fear  to  live  or  die." 

And  he  believed  in  work  through  everything,  — 

"  On  bravely  through  the  sunshine  and  the  showers  ! 
Time  hath  his  work  to  do  and  we  have  ours." 

Such  was  the  courage  of  his  preaching  and  of  his 
life.  We  are  to  be  ourselves  in  the  present,  not  to 
make  ourselves  like  anybody  else  or  like  what  we 
ourselves  have  been.  If  we  are  inconsistent,  no 
matter ;  if  we  are  misunderstood,  no  matter.  "  With 
consistency,"  he  says,  "  a  great  soul  has  simply 
nothing  to  do.  He  may  as  well  concern  himself  with 
his  shadow  on  the  wall.  Speak  what  you  think  now 
in  hard  words,  and  to-morrow  speak  what  to-morrow 
thinks  in  hard  words  again,  though  it  contradict 
everything  you  said  to-day.  4  Ah,  so  you  shall  be 
sure  to  be  misunderstood ! '  Is  it  so  bad,  then,  to  be 
misunderstood  ?  .  .  .  Every  pure  and  wise  spirit  that 
ever  took  flesh  "  has  been  misunderstood. 

"  Whenever  a  mind  is  simple  and  receives  a  divine 
wisdom,  old  things  pass  away,  —  means,  teachers, 
texts,  temples  fall;  it  lives  now,  and  absorbs  past 
and  future  into  the  present  hour." 

"  Our  helm  is  given  up  to  a  better  guidance  than 
our  own ;  the  course  of  events  is  quite  too  strong  for 
any  helmsman,  and  our  little  wherry  is  taken  in  tow 
by  the  ship  of  the  great  Admiral,  which  knows  the 


ADDRESS  OF  LE  BARON   RUSSELL  BRIGGS    27 

way,  and  has  the  force  to  draw  men  and  states  and 
planets  to  their  good." 

And  there  was  no  room  in  his  philosophy  for  the 
sickly  and  discontented.  As  one  of  "  the  first  obvious 
rules  of  life,"  he  says,  "  Get  health."  "  And  the  best 
part  of  health,"  he  adds,  "  is  fine  disposition.  It  is 
more  essential  than  talent,  even  in  the  works  of  tal 
ent.  Nothing  will  supply  the  want  of  sunshine  to 
peaches,  and  to  make  knowledge  valuable,  you  must 
have  the  cheerfulness  of  wisdom." 

"  I  know  how  easy  it  is  to  men  of  the  world  to 
look  grave,  and  sneer  at  your  sanguine  youth  and  its 
glittering  dreams.  But  I  find  the  gayest  castles  in 
the  air  that  were  ever  piled  far  better  for  comfort 
and  for  use  than  the  dungeons  in  the  air  that  are 
daily  dug  and  caverned  out  by  grumbling,  discon 
tented  people." 

Nor  is  cheerfulness  for  the  young  only :  — 

"  Spring  still  makes  spring  in  the  mind 
When  sixty  years  are  told  ; 
Love  wakes  anew  this  throbbing  heart 
And  we  are  never  old. 
Over  the  winter  glaciers 
I  see  the  summer  glow, 
And  through  the  wild-piled  snow-drift 
The  warm  rosebuds  below." 

Even  though  old  age  bring  loss  of  power,  it  need 
not  bring  loss  of  cheerfulness  :  — 

"  As  the  bird  trims  her  to  the  gale, 
I  trim  myself  to  the  storm  of  time 


28  THE  EMERSON   CENTENARY 

I  man  the  rudder,  reef  the  sail, 
Obey  the  voice  at  eve  obeyed  at  prime, 
'  Lowly  faithful,  banish  fear, 
Right  onward  drive  unharmed; 
The  port,  well  worth  the  cruise,  is  near, 
And  every  wave  is  charmed.'  " 

If  disaster  come,  there  is  good  in  it.    "  We  learn 
geology  the  morning  after  the  earthquake." 

George  Eliot  tells  us  of  a  woman  who  seemed 
among  other  people  like  a  fine  quotation  from  the 
Bible  in  a  paragraph  of  a  newspaper.  Something 
like  this  might  be  said  of  Emerson,  who  brought  into 
every-day  life  the  help  that  cometh  from  the  hills. 
"  I  believe,"  says  an  old  friend  of  his,  "  no  man  ever 
had  so  deep  an  influence  as  he  had  on  the  life  and 
thought  of  the  young  people  of  his  day.  I  think 
there  are  many  who  would  say  .  .  .  that  it  has 
been  one  of  the  chief  privileges  of  their  life  to  have 
lived  at  the  same  time  with  him." 

I  have  tried  to  show  you  what  Emerson  has  meant 
to  American  youth ;  how  he  has  stood  for  pure  life, 
high  thought,  brave  speech,  patient  and  cheerful 
work ;  how  he  found  in  everything  poetry  and  a  man's 
poetry,  and  revealed  that  poetry  to  the  world :  but 
this  is  not  all.  It  is  as  easy  to  "  put  a  girdle  round 
about  the  earth  in  forty  minutes  "  as  to  compass  in 
half  an  hour  a  great  man.  I  might  speak  of  him  as  a 
forerunner  of  Darwin.  "  Man,"  he  says,  "  is  no  up 
start  in  the  creation,  but  has  been  prophesied  in  nature 


ADDRESS   OF   LE  BARON   RUSSELL  BRIGGS    29 

for  a  thousand,  thousand  ages  before  he  appeared  .  .  . 
His  limbs  are  only  a  more  exquisite  organization  — 
say  rather  the  finish  —  of  the  rudimental  forms  that 
have  been  already  sweeping  the  sea  and  creeping  in 
the  mud ;  the  brother  of  his  hand  is  even  now  cleav 
ing  the  Arctic  sea  in  the  fin  of  the  whale,  and  innum 
erable  ages  since  was  pawing  the  marsh  in  the  flipper 
of  the  saurian."  I  might  speak  of  his  Yankee  humor, 
or  of  his  tenderness  and  romance,  — 

"  The  little  Shakspeare  in  the  maiden's  heart 
Makes  Romeo  of  a  plough  boy  on  his  cart; " 

but  I  purposely  let  them  pass  with  this  bare  mention 
(as  I  let  pass  "The  Titmouse,"  "The  Rhodora," 
"  The  Mountain  and  the  Squirrel,"  "  The  Humble- 
bee  ")  ;  for  I  wish  you  this  day  to  think  of  Emerson, 
living  and  dead,  as  a  high  and  helpful  friend. 
There  is  no  better  company,  no  better  society,  than 
his.  Read  him  and  re-read  him.  Do  not  try  to  write 
like  him :  he  would  have  you  write  like  none  but 
yourselves ;  and  besides,  his  style  is  his  and  his  only. 
Do  not  try  to  be  like  him,  except  so  far  as  in  being 
your  best  selves  you  come  into  the  likeness  of  all  who 
are  good  and  true.  When  you  read  him,  do  not  be 
troubled  if  you  lose  the  thread  of  his  thought ;  he 
himself  did  that ;  yet,  as  a  young  man  once  said  of 
him,  "His  sayings  are  like  the  stars,  which  are 
scattered  disorderly  but  together  make  a  firmament 
of  light." 

"  Hundreds  of  people,"  says  Ruskin,  "  can  talk 


30  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

for  one  who  can  think  ;  but  thousands  can  think  for 
one  who  can  see.  To  see  clearly  is  poetry,  prophecy, 
and  religion  all  in  one." 

This  man  who  walked  your  streets,  and  loved  them, 
spoke  with  a  voice  that  is  rare  in  any  race  or  time  ; 
he  thought  as  it  is  given  to  few  to  think  ;  and  he  saw. 
We  have  had  no  man  like  him.  I  will  not  say  that 
we  have  had  none  so  great.  Lincoln  may  have  been 
greater.  They  are  so  different  that  we  cannot  com 
pare  the  two :  and  yet,  as  Lincoln's  proclamation 
brought  life  and  hope  to  captive  hearts,  so  did  the 
brave  word  that  Emerson  spoke  flash  on  the  souls  of 
men  the  truth  that  they  were  slaves  no  more ;  that 
each  might  and  must  stand  to  his  work  erect  and 
strong,  since  nature  and  God  were  his  very  own. 
The  eyes  of  the  blind  were  opened,  and  the  ears  of 
the  deaf  unstopped ;  "  for  he  came  that  they  might 
have  life,  and  that  they  might  have  it  more  abun 
dantly." 

The  morning  exercises  then  closed  with  the  "  Concord 
Hymn,"  sung  by  all  the  schools,  and  the  "  Gloria  "  from 
Mozart's  Twelfth  Mass,  sung  by  pupils  of  the  High  School. 


THE  AFTERNOON 


<Bmer0on  Centenarp 


MEMORIAL    EXERCISES 

IN  THE  MEETING  HOUSE 
OF  THE  FIRST  PARISH 

IN 

CONCORD,   MASSACHUSETTS 

ON 

MONDAY  AFTERNOON 

MAY   THE   TWENTY-FIFTH 

NINETEEN  HUNDRED  AND  THREE 

ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS 
AFTER  THE  BIRTH  OF 

RALPH    WALDO    EMERSON 


ARRANGED  BY  THE  SOCIAL  CIRCLE 
A  SOCIETY  OF  WHICH  HE  WAS  A 
MEMBER  FOR  FORTY-TWO  YEARS 


ORDER  OF  EXERCISES 

1.  MUSIC 

Under  the  direction  of  THOMAS  W.  SURETTE 

2.  PRAYER 

By  REV.  LOREN  B.  MACDONALD 

3.  INTRODUCTORY  ADDRESS 

By  SAMUEL  HOAR 

Chairman  of  the  Meeting 

4.  ADDRESS 

By  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON 

5.  ADDRESS 

By  THOMAS  WENTWORTH  HIGGINSON 


6.   A  SONG  OF  DESTINY 

By  FRIEDRICH  HOLDERLIN 

English  Translation  by  REV.  J.  TROUTBECK 

Music  by  JOHANNES  BRAHMS 


"  Far    in    yon   regions  of   light,  where  pleasures  fai/  not^ 

wander  the  Spirits  blest, 
Breathed  on  by  airs  of  glory,  bright  and  divine,  like  a  harp 

when  a  master  hand  wakes  it  from  silence. 
Free  from  care  like  a  babe  that  is  sleeping,  are  they  that  in 

Heaven  dwell. 
Pure  and  lowly  as  half  opened  blossoms,  in  those  fields  of 

light  they  ever  bloom ; 
And  in  bliss  are  their  eyes  still  gazing  on  clearness  calm 

and  eternal." 

Sung  by  the  CONCORD  CHORAL  ASSOCIATION 


7.   ADDRESS 

By  WILLIAM  JAMES 


8.  ADDRESS 

By  GEORGE  FRISBIE  HOAR 

9.  SEVENTY-EIGHTH  PSALM 

Sung  by  the  Congregation 
to  the  tune  of  St.  Martins 


My  tongue,  by  inspiration  taught 

Shall  parables  unfold; 
Dark  oracles,  but  understood, 

And  owned  for  truths  of  old. 

Let  children  learn  the  mighty  deeds 
Which  God  performed  of  old, 

Which,  in  our  younger  years,  we  saw, 
And  which  our  fathers  told. 

Our  lips  shall  tell  them  to  our  sons, 

And  they  again  to  theirs ; 
That  generations  yet  unborn 

May  teach  them  to  their  heirs. 


THE  AFTERNOON 

THE  afternoon  exercises  were  held  in  the  Meeting 
House  of  the  First  Parish. 

The  music  was  under  the  direction  of  Professor 
Thomas  Whitney  Surette,  who  was  also  the  organist 
of  the  occasion  and  liberally  contributed  his  time 
and  talents  to  the  success  of  the  afternoon. 

The  singing  was  by  forty  members  of  the  Concord 
Choral  Association,  who  also  gave  their  services. 

The  Meeting  House  was  opened  at  two  o'clock 
for  the  holders  of  tickets,  and  at  three  o'clock  for  the 
general  public,  about  eight  hundred  people  being 
present. 

The  following  named  sons  of  members  of  the  So 
cial  Circle  were  ushers  and  assistants :  — 

William  Bradford  Bartlett,  Samuel  Hoar,  Jr., 

Percy  Whiting  Brown,  Francis  DeHart  Houston, 

Henry  Taft  Eaton,  Nathaniel  Peabody  How, 

John  Marshall  Eaton,  Richard  Jefferson  Eaton, 

William  Forbes  Emerson,  John  Hoar, 

Raymond  Emerson,  Francis  Rodman  Titcomb. 

The  exercises  began  at  five  minutes  after  three 
by  the  singing  of  Luther's  hymn,  "  A  Mighty  Fort 
ress  is  our  God,"  followed  by  a  prayer  by  the  Rev 
erend  Loren  Benjamin  Macdonald,  the  minister  of 
the  First  Parish. 


34  THE   EMERSON  CENTENARY 

PRAYER 
BY   LOREN   BENJAMIN   MACDONALD 

O  GOD,  we  thank  Thee  for  that  Divine  Wisdom 
which,  from  generation  to  generation,  entering  into 
holy  souls,  has  made  them  friends  of  God  and  pro 
phets.  We  come  before  Thy  face  deeply  grateful  for 
the  gift  of  that  illumined  soul  whose  name  to-day  we 
honor.  We  thank  Thee  for  all  the  blessed  way  in 
which  Thou  didst  lead  him.  We  bless  Thee  that, 
entering  into  his  mind  and  heart,  Thou  didst  so 
guide  him  in  the  way  of  truth  and  light  and  beauty, 
that,  shedding  down  upon  us  to-day  the  greatness  of 
his  thought  and  the  beauty  of  his  spirit,  we  catch 
something  of  that  divine  influence  and  inspiration, 
and  our  lives  are  made  sweeter  and  better  because  he 
has  lived. 

We  thank  Thee,  O  God,  that  Thou  didst  so  touch 
his  heart  in  early  youth  that  he  was  led  on  in  de 
vout  allegiance  to  the  spirit  of  truth  to  which  he 
gave  his  life  —  that  truth  which  brought  him  into 
Thy  sacred  presence.  We  thank  Thee  that  Thy 
spirit  of  beauty  so  took  possession  of  his  soul  that 
he  was  evermore  guided  by  it  to  Thee,  the  source  of 
all  beauty.  We  thank  Thee  for  that  vision  of  right 
eousness  by  which  he  was  ever  led  on  into  the  Holy 
of  Holies  of  Thy  presence.  And  we  thank  Thee  that 
from  that  mount  of  vision,  from  that  divine  insight, 
he  comes  to  us  to-day  to  quicken  our  better  life,  to 


PRAYER  BY  LOREN  B.  MACDONALD    35 

make  the  world  more  beautiful  for  us,  to  make  the 
way  of  life  more  sacred,  to  give  us  a  deeper  sense  of 
responsibility  in  living,  so  that  our  lives  mean  more 
to  us  to-day  because  of  his  teaching. 

We  come  at  this  hour  yielding  our  minds  and 
hearts  in  gracious  and  loving  admiration  and  alle 
giance  to  his  blessed  influence.  We  feel  the  touch 
of  his  spirit  in  these  sacred  surroundings.  We  feel 
that,  in  these  places  hallowed  by  his  presence,  we 
stand  on  holy  ground.  We  pray  Thee  that  more  and 
more  we  may  feel  that  the  beauty  of  the  world  is 
increased  to  us,  indeed,  because  he  has  lived.  Grant 
us,  we  pray,  that,  standing  in  the  inspiration  of  his 
memory,  with  the  blessed  influence  of  his  spirit 
pressing  in  upon  our  spirits,  we  may,  indeed,  follow 
in  that  way  to  which  he  pointed.  May  his  spirit  be 
an  antidote  for  all  our  restlessness,  a  cure  for  all 
that  is  shallow  and  unworthy  in  our  lives.  May  we, 
entering  to-day  into  the  silences  of  the  spirit,  feeling 
ourselves  in  the  presence  of  that  great  Over-Soul,  in 
whose  presence  he  felt  himself,  be  inspired,  as  he 
was,  to  go  forth  to  do  Thy  work  for  the  right,  and 
to  earnest  labor  for  Thy  blessed  kingdom  of  truth 
and  beauty  and  goodness.  Make  us  also  illumined 
souls,  touched  by  that  divine  fire  from  above,  so  that 
we,  too,  catching  some  vision  from  the  mount,  may 
go  forward  to  help  bring  something  of  the  divine 
kingdom  of  light  and  peace  and  joy  here  upon  the 
earth. 

We  ask  it  all  as  Thy  children,  Amen. 


36  THE   EMERSON  CENTENARY 


ADDRESS   OF  SAMUEL  HOAR 

NEIGHBORS  AND  FRIENDS  :  —  It  is  a  rare  event 
in  the  life  of  a  New  England  town  when,  by  a  com 
mon  impulse,  men  pause  to  celebrate  the  anniversary 
of  the  birth  of  one  of  its  citizens. 

With  patriotic  pride,  and  deep  and  tender  feeling, 
we  are  accustomed  to  recur  at  frequent  intervals  to 
the  pathetic  story  of  those  settlements  in  the  wilder 
ness,  of  which  this  in  Concord  was  the  type,  and  we 
note  with  high  appreciation  that  what  was  then  sown 
here  in  weakness  has  been  raised  in  power  again  and 
yet  again. 

And  we  also  esteem  it  a  priceless  heritage,  worthy 
of  continued  celebration,  that  when  in  the  provi 
dence  of  God  it  became  necessary  that  the  might  of 
England  should  be  "  fronted  and  driven  back,"  to 
secure  the  preservation  of  the  liberty  of  which  the 
Fathers  had  sown  the  seed,  there  was  then  found 
here  the  fertile  field  and  the  husbandmen  ready  for 
the  harvest.  These  strengthening  memories  are  a 
part  of  our  local  history. 

It  is  not,  however,  the  least  of  the  claims  of  Con 
cord  to  fame  that  out  from  her  loins  should  have 
sprung  the  great  intellectual  and  spiritual  leader  and 
emancipator  of  America. 

It  seems  fitting  that  this  people  should  commemo 
rate  Emerson  on  the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of 
his  birth,  for  their  history  and  their  quiet  fields 


ADDRESS  OF  SAMUEL  HOAR       37 

furnished  the  alembic  in  which  that  clear  and  pure 
spirit  was  distilled. 

Of  the  seven  men  who  had  been  ministers  of  this 
town  before  his  birth,  whose  names  are  borne  on 
yonder  tablet,  he  claimed  five  as  his  kindred.  It  was 
the  blood  of  Peter  Bulkeley,  the  founder,  repeating 
itself  in  his  veins,  that  made  him  a  non-conformist. 
His  grandfather,  William  Emerson,  the  preacher 
of  the  Revolution,  transmitted  to  him  a  lofty  patri 
otism.  If  there  was  found  in  his  discourses  a  moving 
eloquence,  it  was  traceable  to  the  unquenchable  spirit 
of  Daniel  Bliss,  his  great-grandfather,  who  came 
down  here  from  Springfield  to  discipline  and  divide 
this  people,  of  whom  it  was  said  that  when  the  cele 
brated  Whitefield  preached  here  in  1764  in  the  after 
noon,  and  Mr.  Bliss  preached  in  the  morning,  "  the 
Concord  people  thought  their  minister  gave  them 
the  better  sermon  of  the  two." 

The  Social  Circle,  of  which  Mr.  Emerson  was  an 
active  member  for  forty-two  years,  itself  a  society  in 
this  town  which  traces  its  origin  to  the  Committee  of 
Safety  in  the  Revolution,  acting  in  this  behalf  for 
the  people  of  Concord,  has  invited  you  to  join  with 
it  in  this  Commemoration.  It  has  appointed  me  its 
mouthpiece.  The  summons  must  be  obeyed,  for  I 
cannot  disregard  those  voices,  audible  to  myself  alone, 
which  bid  me  to  say  what  I  can. 

This  Society,  with  the  modesty  generated  by  over 
one  hundred  and  twenty  years  of  life  in  Concord,  re 
calls  what  Emerson  himself  recorded  of  it  in  1844 : 


38  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

"  Much  the  best  society  I  have  ever  known  is  a 
club  in  Concord  called  the  Social  Circle,  consisting 
always  of  twenty-five  of  our  citizens,  doctor,  lawyer, 
farmer,  trader,  miller,  mechanic,  etc.,  solidest  of 
men  who  yield  the  solidest  of  gossip." 

It  should  be  added  that  no  member  of  the  Social 
Circle  now  living  was  a  member  when  these  words 
were  written. 

I  suppose  that  a  majority  of  this  audience  will 
agree  that  the  earliest  misfortune  in  Mr.  Emerson's 
life,  which,  however,  he  did  all  he  could  to  counter 
act  in  after  years,  was  that  he  was  not  born  in  Con 
cord. 

The  record  which  fixes  the  time  of  his  birth 
speaks  of  three  successive  events,  and  is  found  in 
his  father's  diary,  as  follows :  — 

"  May  25,  1803.  Mr.  Puffer  preached  his  Elec 
tion  Sermon  to  great  acceptance.  This  day  also, 
whilst  I  was  at  dinner  at  Governor  Strong's,  my  son 
Ralph  Waldo  was  born.  Mrs.  E.  well.  —  Club  at 
Mr.  Adams'." 

So  we,  too,  divide  our  ceremonies  to-day  into  three 
parts :  an  acceptable  discourse  in  the  morning ;  a 
symposium  after  noon  ;  and  a  meeting  of  the  Club 
in  the  evening. 

His  father,  the  Rev.  William  Emerson,  who  in 
1803  was  the  minister  of  the  First  Church  in  Bos 
ton,  died  in  1811  when  Ralph  Waldo  was  eight 
years  old.  His  mother,  left  a  widow  with  six  chil 
dren  and  in  narrow  circumstances,  was  a  woman  of 


ADDRESS  OF  SAMUEL  HOAR  39 

high  character,  who  under  great  difficulties  reared 
and  educated  her  family.  When  they  were  without 
food  for  a  day  she  sustained  them  by  stories  of 
heroic  endurance.  His  grandfather,  William  Em 
erson,  minister  of  this  town,  builder  of  the  Old 
Manse,  in  which  his  children  were  born,  addressed 
and  encouraged  the  minutemen  on  the  Common  in 
the  early  morning  of  the  nineteenth  of  April,  1775, 
was  witness  and  recorder  of  the  fight  at  the  bridge, 
joined  the  army  at  Ticonderoga  as  chaplain,  and 
died  of  camp-fever  in  1776. 

The  only  grandfather  Mr.  Emerson  ever  knew 
was  Dr.  Ezra  Ripley,  minister  in  this  town  for 
nearly  sixty-three  years,  who  married  the  widow  of 
his  predecessor  and  lived  in  the  Old  Manse,  where 
Mr.  Emerson  came  as  a  boy  on  frequent  visits,  at 
tending  school,  and  forming  the  acquaintance  of  the 
families  of  the  town,  and  the  fields,  trees,  and  mead 
ows  which  were  his  intimate  friends  during  his  long 
life.  His  biographical  sketch  of  Dr.  Ripley,  pub 
lished  among  the  memoirs  of  the  Social  Circle, 
shows  a  deep  appreciation  of  the  life  and  character 
and  manners  of  a  sturdy  New  England  minister  of 
the  old  school,  and  does  not  fail  to  note  the  humor 
ous  side  of  its  subject. 

Mr.  Emerson  entered  Harvard  College  in  1817, 
was  President's  Freshman  under  President  Kirkland, 
which  office  entitled  him  to  a  room  rent  free,  earned 
needed  money  as  a  waiter  in  Commons,  held  several 
scholarships,  withdrew  with  his  class  from  college 


40  THE   EMERSON  CENTENARY 

in  his  sophomore  year  because  some  of  its  members 
were  expelled  for  a  fight  with  freshmen,  returned 
and  graduated  about  midway  in  his  class  in  1821, 
and  was  its  class  poet.  He  taught  school,  studied 
for  the  ministry,  was  ordained  in  1826  and  preached, 
was  threatened  by  serious  sickness,  became  asso 
ciate  pastor  with  the  Kev.  Henry  Ware  in  the  Sec 
ond  Church  in  Boston  (the  old  church  of  Cotton 
Mather),  separated  himself  therefrom  in  1832,  re 
fused  offers  of  settlement  from  other  societies,  and 
came  to  Concord  with  his  mother  to  board  at  the 
Old  Manse  in  the  fall  of  1834,  when  he  was  thirty- 
one  years  of  age. 

He  came  to  be  the  seer  and  prophet  and  poet,  the 
teacher  and  the  spokesman  of  this  town.  On  its 
great  occasions  he  appeared  for  it,  and  not  only  illu 
mined  the  events  of  which  he  spoke  but  made  those 
events  vocal  and  perpetuated  them  in  human  mem 
ory.  His  address  on  the  two  hundredth  anniversary 
of  the  settlement  of  the  town  is  easily  the  first  of 
its  kind.  It  should  be  read  here  to  each  successive 
generation  on  the  twelfth  of  September,  even  as  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  is  read  in  our  towns  on 
the  Fourth  of  July.  It  was  delivered  011  Saturday, 
September  12,  1835,  when  he  was  thirty-two  years 
old.  He  drove  to  Plymouth  on  the  fourteenth,  was 
there  married  to  Miss  Lydia  Jackson,  and  drove 
back  on  the  fifteenth  with  his  wife,  to  the  house 
which  he  had  bought  on  the  Cambridge  turnpike,  to 
live  there  the  rest  of  his  life. 


ADDRESS  OF  SAMUEL   HOAR  41 

Of  the  farm,  as  he  called  it,  on  which  he  lived,  he 
subsequently  wrote  thus :  — 

"  When  I  bought  my  farm  I  did  not  know  what 
a  bargain  I  had  in  the  blue-birds,  bobolinks,  and 
thrushes,  which  were  not  charged  in  the  bill.  As 
little  did  I  guess  what  sublime  mornings  and  sunsets 
I  was  buying,  what  reaches  of  landscape,  and  what 
fields  and  lanes  for  a  tramp.  Neither  did  I  fully  con 
sider  what  an  indescribable  luxury  is  our  Indian 
River,  which  runs  parallel  with  the  village  street  and 
to  which  every  house  on  that  long  street  has  a  back 
door  which  leads  down  through  the  garden  to  the 
river  bank ;  where  a  skiff  or  dory  gives  you  all 
summer  access  to  enchantments  new  every  day,  and 
all  winter  to  miles  of  ice  for  the  skater.  Still  less  did 
I  know  what  good  and  true  neighbors  I  was  buying : 
men  of  thought  and  virtue,  some  of  them  known  the 
country  through  for  their  learning,  or  subtlety,  or 
action,  or  patriotic  power,  but  whom  I  had  the  plea 
sure  of  knowing  long  before  the  country  did  ;  and 
other  men,  not  known  widely,  but  known  at  home, 
farmers,  not  doctors  of  laws,  but  doctors  of  land, 
skilled  in  turning  a  swamp  or  a  sandbank  into  a 
fruitful  field,  and  where  witch-grass  and  nettles  grew 
causing  a  forest  of  apple-trees  or  miles  of  corn  and 
rye  to  thrive.  I  did  not  know  what  groups  of  interest 
ing  school-boys  and  fair  school-girls  were  to  greet 
me  in  the  highway,  and  to  take  hold  of  one's  heart 
at  the  school  exhibitions." 

In  1837  he  wrote  the  famous  hymn  for  the  dedi- 


42  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

cation  of  the  Battle  Monument,  and  compressed  the 
story  of  the  fight  into  the  lines  which  are  now  in 
scribed  on  the  base  of  the  statue  of  the  Minuteman. 

And  we  take  pride  in  the  knowledge  that  the  sub 
lime  record  of  his  mighty  thoughts  has  been  heard 
round  the  world,  with  a  potency  for  good  at  least  as 
effective  as  the  shot  of  the  embattled  farmers. 

In  his  old  age,  upon  the  one  hundredth  anniversary 
of  the  fight,  he  spoke  at  our  great  celebration,  saying 
at  the  close,  "  It  is  a  proud  and  tender  story.  I  chal 
lenge  any  lover  of  Massachusetts  to  read  the  fifty- 
ninth  chapter  of  Bancroft's  History  without  tears  of 

joy." 

And  what  great  benefactions  he  showered  upon 
this  people  all  his  life.  He  gratuitously  gave  one 
hundred  lectures  before  our  Lyceum,  or  an  average 
of  two  a  year.  It  was  sometimes  irreverently  said  that 
he  tried  them  on  in  Concord.  If  this  were  true,  it  is 
comforting  to  us  to  admit  that  they  proved  a  good 
fit.  They  are  themselves  the  record  of  a  noble  life. 
They  constitute  the  greatest  service  rendered  to  this 
community  by  any  single  life  in  its  history.  They 
were  eagerly  attended  by  old  and  young.  They  were 
filled  with  lofty  and  inspiring  thoughts,  and  every 
now  and  then  came  flashes  of  unexpected  humor. 

I  remember  hearing  as  a  boy  a  lecture  of  his ;  the 
subject  I  have  forgotten,  its  doctrines  probably  I 
did  not  appreciate  ;  I  was  no  doubt  charmed  as  always 
by  the  music  of  his  voice  and  the  felicity  of  his  dic 
tion.  Perhaps  he  was  arguing  for  concentration  of 


ADDRESS  OF  SAMUEL  HOAR  43 

effort.  He  turned  from  the  pages  of  his  manuscript, 
which,  like  a  lianclf  ul  of  pearls,  he  would  seem  to  take 
one  by  one  at  random  and  discourse  upon,  and,  hesi 
tating  a  moment  as  he  looked  out  upon  his  audience, 
smiled,  and  said,  "  No  man,  says  the  Italian  proverb, 
can  carry  more  than  three  watermelons  under  one 
arm."  The  memory  of  this  anecdote  served  a  good 
end  thirty  years  afterward,  and  furnished  an  apt 
illustration  of  the  helpless  condition  of  a  witness  who 
had  unsuccessfully  ventured  on  a  number  of  false 
hoods  in  testifying  to  an  important  transaction. 

He  was  for  many  years  on  our  School  Committee. 
He  regularly  attended  the  town  meetings  and  occa 
sionally  took  active  part  in  the  discussions.  We  re 
member  his  speaking  words  of  high  encouragement 
and  patriotic  fervor  to  a  company  of  young  men  of 
this  town  who  were  starting  for  the  front  in  the  Civil 
War.  These  words  were  spoken  on  the  Common  to 
the  descendants  of  the  men  for  whom  his  grandfather 
had  done  a  similar  service  on  the  same  spot  nearly 
ninety  years  before. 

And  when  the  town  dedicated  its  monument  to 
those  who  went  and  did  not  return,  we  spontaneously 
turned  again  to  the  kindness  which  never  failed  us. 

He  had  long  service  on  the  Library  Committee  of 
the  town.  He  delivered  also  the  address  at  the  open 
ing  of  our  new  Public  Library  in  1873. 

He  was  a  member  of  this  Parish,  had  during  all 
his  life  here  a  pew,  in  which  he  sat  with  his  family 
whenever  he  went  to  church. 


44  THE  EMERSON   CENTENARY 

He  acknowledged  his  own  indebtedness  to  three 
women  of  high  character  and  rare  attainments,  not 
of  his  own  immediate  family,  —  his  aunt,  Mary 
Moody  Emerson,  of  whom  he  wrote,  "  she  gave  high 
counsels:  it  was  the  privilege  of  certain  boys  to 
have  this  immeasurably  high  standard  indicated  to 
their  childhood,  a  blessing  which  nothing  else  in  edu 
cation  could  supply  ;  "  Mrs.  Samuel  Bipley,  of  whom 
he  said,  "  The  kindness  and  genius  that  blend  their 
light  in  the  eyes  of  Mrs.  Ripley  inspire  me  with  some 
feeling  of  unworthiness  ;  at  least  with  impatience  of 
doing  so  little  to  deserve  so  much  confidence  ; "  and 
Elizabeth  Hoar,  of  whom  he  recorded  in  his  journal, 
"  I  have  no  other  friend  whom  I  more  wish  to  be 
immortal  than  she  ;  an  influence  I  cannot  spare,  but 
must  always  have  at  hand  for  recourse." 

Mr.  Emerson  was  an  idealist,  he  was  the  idealist 
of  our  time,  he  was  "  the  Man  thinking,"  but  he  was 
more  than  that  to  us.  Where  his  standard  was 
planted,  to  that  height  he  had  himself  attained ;  yet 
he  was  singularly  free  from  self-assertion  ;  he  sought 
for,  and  seemed  eager  to  recognize,  the  superiority 
of  others,  and  lived  among  us  here  as  other  men 
lived.  It  is  our  great  felicity  that  he  lived  here.  He 
bound  us  to  him  by  the  completeness  of  his  character 
and  the  sweetness  and  simplicity  of  his  life,  and  by 
the  message  of  good  hope  which  he  continually  gave. 
The  supreme  test  of  the  neighbor  proved  his  worth. 
Did  not  our  own  Sam  Staples  say  of  him  that  he 
was  "  a  first-rate  neighbor,  and  one  who  always  kept 


ADDRESS  OF  CHARLES   ELIOT  NORTON      45 

his  fences  up  "  ?  And  he  himself  said,  "  Those  of  us 
who  do  not  believe  in  communities,  believe  in  neigh 
borhoods  and  that  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  may  con 
sist  of  such." 

The  Chairman  then  said  :  — 

We  have  invited  some  eminent  men  to  speak  to  us 
to-day,  and  I  take  pleasure  in  presenting  Professor 
Charles  Eliot  Norton,  of  Cambridge. 


ADDRESS   OF 
CHARLES   ELIOT  NORTON 

MR.  CHAIRMAN,  Members  of  the  Social  Circle, 
Ladies  and  Gentlemen  of  Concord  and  from  abroad  : 
It  is  well  that  this  day  should  be  celebrated  through 
out  our  land,  for  the  memory  of  Emerson  deserves 
more  than  mere  local  honor.  It  is  well,  moreover, 
because  the  celebration  is  a  virtual  protest  against 
the  prevalent  spirit  of  materialism  and  militarism. 
But  here,  in  this  doubly  consecrated  town,  the  cele 
bration,  as  you,  Mr.  Chairman,  have  justly  said,  has 
special  significance  and  appropriateness,  and  you 
will  not  disapprove  of  my  citing,  as  accordant  with 
your  own  words,  those  of  your  honored  father,  Mr. 
Emerson's  near  friend,  the  "  incomparable  citizen," 
as  he  called  him,  the  spokesman  of  the  town  at 
Emerson's  funeral,  when  he  said,  in  his  brief  and 
heartfelt  address  on  that  occasion :  "  We,  his 


46  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

neighbors  and  townsmen,  feel  that  he  was  ours.  He 
was  descended  from  the  founders  of  the  town.  He 
chose  our  village  as  the  place  where  his  lifelong  work 
was  to  be  done.  It  was  to  our  fields  and  orchards  that 
his  presence  gave  such  value ;  it  was  our  streets  in 
which  the  children  looked  up  to  him  with  love,  and 
the  elders  with  reverence.  He  was  our  ornament 
and  pride."  It  is  becoming,  then,  that  you,  members 
of  the  Social  Circle  to  which  Emerson  belonged  for 
many  years,  should,  above  all,  commemorate  this  an 
niversary,  and  should  ask  others  to  celebrate  it  with 
you.  I  thank  you  for  inviting  me  to  take  part  in  it. 

"  There  are  always  in  the  world,"  says  Plato,  "  a 
few  inspired  men  whose  acquaintance  is  beyond 
price."  "  I  am  in  the  habit  of  thinking,"  said  Mr. 
Emerson,  "  that  to  every  serious  mind  Providence 
sends  from  time  to  time  five  or  six  or  seven  teachers 
who  are  of  the  first  importance  to  him  in  the  lessons 
they  have  to  impart.  The  highest  of  these  not  so 
much  give  particular  knowledge,  as  they  elevate  by 
sentiment,  and  by  their  habitual  grandeur  of  view." 

And  of  these  highest  inspired  men  whose  ac 
quaintance  is  beyond  price,  and  who  elevate  those 
who  come  into  relations  with  them  by  sentiment  and 
habitual  grandeur  of  view,  was  Emerson  himself. 
In  modern  times  the  influence  of  these  men  is  dif 
fused  through  their  printed  words,  and  they  become 
teachers  of  first  importance  to  many  remote  and 
unknown  readers.  Yet  now,  as  in  the  days  of  Plato, 
personal  acquaintance  with  them  is  beyond  price. 


ADDRESS  OF  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON      47 

But  the  printed  word  is  diuturnal,  and  the  personal 
acquaintance  transitory.  For  a  little  while  the  per 
sonality  of  these  divine  men,  cherished  in  the  memo 
ries  of  a  few  of  their  contemporaries,  continues  to 
have  a  twilight  existence ;  but  before  long  all  who 
knew  them  face  to  face  have  gone  from  the  world, 
and  only  hearsay  and  tradition  concerning  them 
remain. 

It  is  an  interesting  and  precious  element  of  this 
commemorative  occasion  that  so  many  are  taking 
part  in  it  who  remember  Mr.  Emerson  in  life,  and 
who  bear  in  their  hearts  the  image  of  his  benignant 
presence.  We,  the  elders,  who  held  acquaintance 
with  him  to  be  priceless,  and  for  whom  he  felt  a 
kindly  regard  or  even  a  friendly  affection,  can  hardly, 
do  a  better  service  for  the  younger  generation  than 
to  give  them,  so  far  as  may  be  possible,  a  faithful 
impression  of  the  man  himself,  who  exhibited  in  his 
daily  walk  and  conversation  a  nature  of  ideal  sim 
plicity,  dignity,  and  elevation. 

Emerson  was  fortunate  in  the  time  and  place  of 
his  birth.  I  doubt  if  there  has  ever  been  a  com 
munity  happier  in  its  main  conditions,  moral  and 
material,  than  that  of  Massachusetts  during  the 
early  years  of  the  last  century.  But  it  was  essen 
tially  immature ;  it  had  not  yet  secured  intellectual 
independence  ;  its  thought,  its  literature,  its  manners, 
its  religion,  were  imported  and  derivative.  Many 
men  of  vigorous  character  and  abundant  natural 
capacity  were  found  in  it ;  but  there  were  few  who 


48  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

possessed  originality  or  depth  of  intellect ;  no  poets, 
no  philosophers,  no  thinkers  in  the  highest  sense 
were  here ;  nor  were  there  any  deep  founts  of  learn 
ing. 

Into  this  fortunate,  immature,  intelligent,  reli 
gious,  hopeful  community,  Emerson  was  born ;  born 
of  admirable  parents,  the  children  of  a  long  line  of 
well-bred  ancestors.  He  was  born  good,  with  an 
inheritance  of  serious-mindedness,  of  an  intellectual 
disposition,  and  of  religious  sentiment.  He  was  also 
born  a  poet,  and  the  advantages  of  place  and  time 
of  his  birth  gave  form  and  direction  to  his  poetic 
genius.  Its  very  originality,  that  which  distinguishes 
and  individualizes  it,  exhibits  its  native  source. 

The  originality  of  genius  is  often  a  strange  and 
perplexing  phenomenon  to  the  contemporaries  of  its 
possessor,  —  nor  is  it  always  understood  by  the  man 
himself.  Contemporaries  fail  to  recognize  at  once 
the  poet  as  the  seer  who  reveals  to  them  their  own 
imperfectly  developed  tendencies,  and  expresses  for 
them  their  own  mute  sentiments  ;  while  the  poet, 
familiar  with  the  conditions  in  which  he  lives,  and 
unconsciously  shaped  by  them,  may  fail,  for  a  time 
at  least,  to  note  the  partial  incompatibility  between 
the  traditional  and  customary  order  of  things  and 
the  novel  ideas  revealed  to  his  poetic  vision. 

So  it  was  with  Emerson.  The  mass  of  his  contem 
poraries  for  a  long  while  looked  askance  on  him,  and 
regarded  his  utterances  with  suspicion  and  disap 
proval.  And  he  himself  made  a  long  trial  of  the 


ADDRESS  OF  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON   49 

old  ways  before  he  arrived  at  the  conviction  that  he 
could  not  follow  them,  but  must  take  the  independ 
ent  course  dictated  to  him  by  his  genius.  He  was 
already  thirty  years  old  when  he  came  to  full  self- 
reliance.  Before  he  was  forty  years  old  he  had  de 
livered  his  chief  message.  This  was  no  systematic 
philosophy,  no  dogmatic  doctrine,  but  an  individual 
interpretation  of  the  universe,  and  of  the  life  of 
man  as  a  part  of  the  universe. 

The  essence  of  his  spiritual  teaching  seems  to  me 
to  be  comprised  in  three  fundamental  articles, — 
first,  that  of  the  Unity  of  Being  in  God  and  Man ; 
second,  that  of  the  creation  of  the  visible,  material 
world  by  Mind,  and  of  its  being  the  symbol  of  the 
spiritual  world ;  and  third,  that  of  the  identity  and 
universality  of  moral  law  in  the  spiritual  and  mate 
rial  universe.  These  truths  are  for  him  the  basis 
of  life,  the  substance  of  religion,  and  the  meaning  of 
the  universe. 

From  the  little  circle  of  selfish  interests  in  which 
our  lives  are  mainly  spent,  Emerson  lifts  us  into  the 
great  circles  of  the  universe,  from  the  meanness  of 
personal  and  individual  considerations  into  the  sense 
of  the  large  spiritual  relations  of  even  our  common 
daily  affairs,  and  makes  us  conscious  partakers  of  the 
general  life  of  the  universe,  part  and  parcel  of  its 
divine  order.  It  is  this  that  Matthew  Arnold  meant 
when  he  said  so  well  that  Emerson  "  is  the  friend 
and  aider  of  those  who  live  in  the  spirit."  Holding 
nature,  and  man  as  a  part  of  nature,  to  be  but  a 


50  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

symbol  and  external  manifestation  of  the  Eternal 
and  Infinite  Mind,  omnipresent  in  the  form  of  the 
Universe,  the  source  of  its  law  by  which  it  works 
always  toward  perfection,  he  cannot  but  be  the  most 
absolute  of  optimists.  There  is  no  pause  in  the  flow 
of  Being  through  the  world ;  everything  is  in  a  state 
of  flux,  and  the  main  course  of  the  stream  is  always 
forward,  from  good  to  better. 

"  Through  flood  and  sea  and  firmament, 
Through  light,  through  life  it  forward  flows." 

But  truth  that  has  been  spiritually  discerned  must 
be  spiritually  interpreted.  When  he  insists  on  the 
divinity  in  man,  and  bids  him  trust  himself,  it  is 
not  to  the  selfish  and  arrogant  that  he  speaks,  but 
to  the  man  who  is  endeavoring  after  righteousness 
and  who  keeps  his  soul  open  to  the  influences  of 
the  divine  essence  which  is  its  source.  His  optimism 
is  the  same  with  that  of  Ecclesiasticus :  "  All  the 
works  of  the  Lord  are  good,  —  so  that  a  man  cannot 
say  this  is  worse  than  that,  for  in  him  they  shall  all 
be  approved."  And  his  teaching  of  self-confidence 
is  taught  not  less  by  the  same  wise  man  of  old: 
"  In  every  good  work  trust  thine  own  soul,  for  this 
is  the  keeping  of  the  commandments."  "  The  soul 
converses  with  truths,"  said  Emerson,  "that  have 
always  been  spoken  in  the  world." 

Emerson  was  of  that  class  of  men,  individuals  of 
which,  as  he  says,  appear  at  long  intervals,  eminently 
endowed  with  insight  and  virtue,  and  manifesting  in 


ADDRESS  OF  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON      51 

every  relation  and  expression  a  latent  indefinable 
power,  which  is  of  a  different  and  higher  order  than 
any  talent  and  which  compels  attention  and  respect. 
It  is  the  power  of  character,  that  is,  of  the  highest 
form  of  the  nature  of  the  man.  It  is  this  which 
determines  ultimately  the  extent  and  the  strength  of 
his  influence.  In  a  noble  nature  it  exhibits  itself  in 
every  expression. 

And  if  I  were  called  on  to  describe  Emerson  in 
a  single  phrase,  I  should  say  that  of  all  the  men  I 
have  known  he  made  the  strongest  impression  of  con 
sistent  loftiness  of  character.  This  character  was  no 
less  manifest  in  familiar  social  relations  than  in  his 
public  discourses.  His  superiority  was  evident  in  the 
natural  simplicity  of  his  manners  and  demeanor. 
Affectation,  self-consciousness,  parade,  were  impos 
sible  to  him.  His  habitual  bearing  was  of  sweet 
gravity  and  reserve,  in  which  was  no  aloofness,  but 
a  ready  responsiveness  to  every  claim  of  thought  or 
word  of  another.  He  was  not  lavish  of  sympathy, 
but  in  case  of  need  no  sympathy  was  more  compre 
hensive  than  his.  He  inspired  affection  and  honor 
in  every  one  who  knew  him.  His  presence  raised  the 
level  of  every  company. 

His  essays  on  Character,  Manners,  and  Beha 
vior  show  how  penetrating  and  clear  had  been  his 
observation  of  the  ways  of  men,  and  how  wise  his 
conclusions  from  it,  —  but  though  many  of  the  finer 
traits  which  he  described  found  illustration  in  him 
self,  yet  the  secret  of  his  superiority  is  hardly  dis- 


52  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

closed  in  them.  It  resided,  I  believe,  in  the  fact  that 
he  lived  more  in  accord  with  the  moral  order  of  the 
soul  than  other  men,  more  as  one  whose  soul  was 
always  open  to  the  influences  of  the  divine  spirit, 
however  that  spirit  be  defined.  In  this  was  the  source 
of  the  serenity  and  elevation  of  his  own  spirit,  and  in 
it  was  also  the  source  of  that  clear  insight  into  the 
significance  of  common  life  and  daily  trivial  affairs 
which  his  reflections  upon  them  and  his  aphorisms 
concerning  them  display. 

In  1870,  after  reading  Emerson's  volume  entitled 
Society  and  Solitude,  Carlyle  wrote  to  him  in  well- 
chosen  words :  "  It  seems  to  me  you  are  all  your  old 
self  here,  and  something  more.  A  calm  insight, 
piercing  to  the  very  centre ;  a  beautiful  sympathy,  a 
beautiful  epic  humor ;  a  soul  peaceably  irrefragable 
in  this  loud-jangling  world,  of  which  it  sees  the  ugli 
ness,  but  notices  only  the  huge  new  opulences  (still  so 
anarchic)  ;  knows  the  electric  telegraph,  with  all  its 
vulgar  botherations  and  impertinences,  accurately  for 
what  it  is,  and  ditto  ditto  the  oldest  eternal  Theolo 
gies  of  men.  All  this  belongs  to  the  Highest  Class 
of  thought ;  and  again  seemed  to  me  as,  in  several  re 
spects,  the  one  perfectly  Human  Voice  I  had  heard 
among  my  fellow-creatures  for  a  long  time.  And 
then  the  '  style,'  the  treatment  and  expression,  —  yes, 
it  is  inimitable,  best  —  Emersonian  throughout.  .  .  . 
You  have  done  very  well ;  and  many  will  know  it 
ever  better  by  degrees."  The  judgment  of  the  friend 
is  confirmed  by  that  of  the  new  generation. 


ADDRESS  OF  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON   53 

My  own  relations  with  Emerson  began  after  his 
position  as  poet  and  seer  was  established,  not  with  the 
great  public  indeed,  but  with  the  best  of  his  contem 
poraries.  Twenty-five  years  younger  than  he,  I  felt 
at  first  a  certain  hesitancy  and  shyness  in  personal 
relations  with  him,  not  only  because  of  the  disparity 
of  age,  and  the  distinction  of  his  place  in  the  esteem 
of  worthy  men,  but  also  because  my  father  had  been 
conspicuous  in  opposition  to  the  drift  of  his  teach 
ings  and  had  used  language  of  severe  condemnation 
of  them.  It  seemed  to  me  possible  that  Mr.  Emerson, 
though  too  high-minded  to  feel  resentment  toward 
an  upright  and  high-minded  opponent,  might  yet  in 
cline  to  hold  back  from  more  than  merely  formal 
acquaintance  with  me.  But  I  was  mistaken.  From 
the  beginning  of  our  intercourse  he  treated  me  with 
a  simple  graciousness  and  frank  confidence  that  set 
me  at  ease  with  him,  and  quickened  in  me  that  affec 
tion  and  reverence  which  I  have  just  spoken  of  his 
inspiring  in  every  one  who  had  the  happiness  of 
coming  into  close  relation  with  him. 

Thirty  years  ago  this  month  I  had  the  opportunity 
of  seeing  more  of  him,  and  of  being  in  more  constant 
relation  with  him  than  at  any  other  time.  He  was 
returning  with  his  daughter  from  his  last  visit  to 
Europe,  and  I,  with  my  family,  was  a  fellow  passenger 
on  the  steamer.  There  was  no  crowd  on  board  ;  the 
vessel  was  not  one  of  the  swift  Leviathans  of  to-day. 
We  had  long  walks  together  on  the  deck ;  and  in  the 
evening,  after  the  rest  of  the  passengers  had  gone 


54  THE  EMERSON   CENTENARY 

to  their  berths,  he  and  I  used  to  sit  talking  together 
for  an  hour  or  two,  till  eleven  o'clock,  when  the  lights 
were  extinguished  in  the  deserted  cabin.  The  visit 
to  Europe  and  to  Egypt  had  been  undertaken,  as 
some  of  you  will  remember,  at  the  urgency  of  friends, 
in  the  belief  that  a  change  of  scene  and  interest 
would  be  serviceable  to  him  after  the  shock  which 
he  had  experienced  from  the  burning  of  his  house  in 
the  summer,  and  the  depressed  condition  of  health 
which  had  followed  it.  It  had  done  him  all  the  good 
that  had  been  hoped  for,  and  he  now  seemed  in 
excellent  health  and  spirits. 

"  It  is  rank  blasphemy,"  said  he  one  day,  "  to 
doubt  anything  in  the  universe ;  everything  in  life 
makes  for  good.  The  moral  element  in  man  supreme, 
is  progressive.  Man  is  always  better  than  himself. 
The  world  is  all  for  happiness,  and  is  meant  for  the 
happy.  It  is  always  improving.  Pain  and  sorrow  are 
of  no  account  as  compared  with  the  joy  of  living ;  if 
a  man  be  overcome  by  them  he  violates  the  moral 
order." 

"  The  universe  is  not  a  cheat ;  the  beauty  and  the 
order  of  the  external  world  are  sufficient  proof  that 
the  spiritual  world  is  in  accord  with  the  hopes  and 
instincts  of  man  and  nature  for  their  own  perfection." 

"  Order,  goodness,  God  are  the  one  everlasting, 
self -existent  fact." 

"  I  measure  a  man's  intellectual  sanity  by  his  faith 
in  immortality.  A  wise  man's  wish  for  life  is  in  pro 
portion  to  his  wisdom." 


ADDRESS  OF  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON      55 

He  would  not  entertain  for  a  moment  the  evidence 
of  ruthlessness  and  disorder  in  nature,  of  perversion 
of  the  moral  nature  in  men.  His  faith  was  superior 
to  any  apparent  exceptions  to  his  doctrine  ;  all  of  them 
could  be  brought  into  accordance  with  it. 

In  our  long  evening  talks  he  told  me  much  of  his 
early  life.  He  was  often  in  a  mood  of  reminiscence, 
and  in  the  retrospect  all  life  lay  fair  behind  him,  like 
a  pleasant  landscape  illumined  by  the  slowly  sinking 
sun.  The  sweetness  and  purity  and  elevation  of  his 
nature  were  manifest  in  his  recollections,  and  his 
vision  of  the  past  was  that  not  only  of  the  poet,  but 
of  the  good  man  who  had  gained  from  life  the  best 
it  can  afford.  He  returned  over  and  over  again  to  the 
happiness  of  life  and  the  joy  of  existence.  He  had 
been  very  fortunate  in  his  times. 

The  25th  of  May,  his  seventieth  birthday,  was 
the  last  day  before  the  voyage  ended.  When  I 
greeted  him  in  the  morning,  he  replied  with  a  plea 
sant  semi-humorous  smile,  and  with  a  blush  like  a 
youth,  "  You  are  too  good  with  all  these  kind  words, 
but  the  day  is  a  melancholy  one  for  me,  for  I  count 
this  seventieth  birthday  as  the  close  of  youth  !  "  He 
had  been  reading  with  great  interest  on  the  voyage 
the  quatrains  of  Omar  Khayyam,  and  one  of  them 
may  have  been  lingering  in  his  mind :  — 

"  Yet  Oh  !  that  Spring  should  vanish  with  the  Rose! 
That  Youth's  sweet-scented  manuscript  should  close  ! 
The  nightingale  that  in  the  branches  sang, 
Ah  whence,  and  whither  flown  again,  who  knows  ?  " 


56  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

But  my  thoughts  fell  back  to  his  own  Terminus, 
written  ten  years  before ;  not  so  much  to  its  opening 
words,  "  It  is  time  to  grow  old,"  but  rather  to  the 
verses  with  which  it  ends  :  — 

"  As  the  bird  trims  her  to  the  gale, 
I  trim  myself  to  the  storm  of  time, 
I  man  the  rudder,  reef  the  sail, 
Obey  the  voice  at  eve  obeyed  at  prime  ; 
Lowly  faithful,  banish  fear, 
Right  onward  drive  unharmed ; 
The  port,  well  worth  the  cruise,  is  near, 
And  every  wave  is  charmed." 

One  day,  a  day  of  rough  waves  and  lowering  skies, 
as  we  walked  the  deck,  he  spoke  of  the  stout  hearts 
of  the  early  mariners,  sailing  the  untracked  seas. 
"  How,  in  Heaven's  name,  did  Columbus  get  over  ?  " 
as  Clough  asks.  "  Not  so  much  of  a  wonder  after 
all,"  said  Emerson ;  "  Columbus  had  his  compass,  and 
that  was  enough  for  such  a  soul  as  his ;  there  was 
the  miracle  of  the  magnet,  the  witness  of  the  divine 
spirit  in  nature,  type  of  the  eternal  control  of  matter 
by  spirit,  of  fidelity  to  the  unseen  and  the  ideal.  I 
always  carry  with  me  a  little  compass,"  and  taking 
it  from  his  pocket,  he  added,  "  I  like  to  hold  the  god 
in  my  hand." 

He  lived  for  nine  years  after  his  return  home. 
Some  of  you  remember  his  gently  declining  days. 
The  evening  mists  steadily  gathered  about  him,  but 
while  they  gradually  obscured  the  light  of  his  mind, 
they  were  still  suffused  by  the  unquenched  glow  of 
his  spirit.  His  sweetness,  his  faith  never  failed. 


ADDRESS  OF  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON      67 

On  the  last  occasion  that  I  saw  him  at  his  own 
house  his  powers  of  recollection  were  imperfect,  but 
his  gracious  benignity  was  unchanged.  His  talk  had 
its  old  tone,  though  the  intermittent  thoughts  some 
times  failed  to  find  perfect  expression.  As  I  was 
bidding  him  good-bye  at  his  hospitable  door,  his 
daughter,  who  proposed  to  go  with  me  to  the  rail 
road  station,  urged  him  to  accompany  us.  "  No,"  said 
he,  "  no,  my  dear,  my  good  friend  whose  name  I  can 
not  recall,  has  had  quite  enough  of  me  to-day  ; "  and 
then  turning  to  me  with  a  smile,  as  if  to  apologize 
for  the  seeming  lack  of  courtesy  in  his  inability  to 
recall  my  name,  he  said  in  words  and  manner  like 
his  old  self,  "  Strange  that  the  kind  Heavens  should 
keep  us  upon  earth  after  they  have  destroyed  our 
connection  with  things  !  " 

The  last  time  I  saw  him  was  at  the  funeral  of 
Longfellow  on  the  26th  of  March,  just  a  month  be 
fore  his  own  death.  He  leaned  on  my  arm  as  we 
walked  through  the  path  at  Mt.  Auburn  behind  the 
poet's  coffin,  and  as  we  stood  listening  to  the  short 
service  at  the  grave.  He  hardly  seemed  to  belong  to 
our  actual  life  ;  he  was  present  but  yet  remote  ;  for 
him,  too,  "  The  port  well  worth  the  cruise  was  near." 

If  there  be  pathos  in  the  record  of  these  last  days, 
there  is  no  drop  of  bitterness  in  it.  They  were  the 
peaceful  ending  of  a  happy  life.  "  Enoch  walked 
with  God  ;  and  he  was  not,  for  God  took  him." 

Emerson's  fame  is  secure.  The  years  will  sift  his 
work,  but  his  true  message  and  service  were  not  for 


58  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

his  own  generation  alone.  It  is  not  the  founders 
of  schools  whose  influence  is  the  strongest  and  most- 
lasting  in  the  world,  but  rather  that  of  teachers  who 
lift  and  invigorate  the  souls  of  men  by  sentiment  and 
habitual  loftiness  of  view.  Men  draw  strength  and 
high  resolve  to-day,  after  seventeen  centuries,  from 
the  desultory  Meditations  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  and 
in  long  future  time  men  seeking  to  elevate  and  lib 
erate  their  souls  will  find  help  in  the  words  and  ex 
ample  in  the  character  of  Emerson. 

The  Chairman  then  introduced  Colonel  Thomas 
Wentworth  Higginson. 


ADDRESS   OF 
THOMAS  WENTWORTH  HIGGINSON 

WHEN  one  opens  the  morning's  newspaper  on  a  day 
like  this  and  finds  it  filled,  like  all  its  companion 
journals,  with  eulogiums  upon  one  man,  it  is  diffi 
cult  not  to  recall  that  fine  passage  in  Landor's 
Imaginary  Conversations,  where  Demosthenes  says 
of  Athens,  "  I  have  seen  the  day  when  the  most 
august  of  cities  had  but  one  voice  within  her  walls ; 
and  when  the  stranger,  on  entering  them,  stopped 
at  the  silence  of  the  gateway,  and  said,  '  Demos 
thenes  is  speaking  in  the  assemblage  of  the  people. ' ' 
One  controlling  voice  speaks  to  us  to-day  and  all 
that  we  can  do  is  in  our  humbler  individual  tones  to 


ADDRESS  OF  T.  W.  HIGGINSON  69 

respond  to  it.  The  point  upon  which  I  am  to  speak, 
as  I  understand,  is  the  record  of  Ralph  Waldo 
Emerson  as  a  reformer. 

In  viewing  him  thus,  we  may  well  recall  Father 
Taylor,  the  famous  preacher  to  sailors  in  Boston, 
who,  when  criticised  by  some  fellow  Methodists  for 
being  a  friend  of  Emerson,  inasmuch  as  he  was  a 
man  who,  they  thought,  must  surely  go  to  hell,  re 
plied,  "  It  does  look  so ;  but  I  am  sure  of  one  thing ; 
if  Emerson  goes  to  hell  it  will  change  the  climate 
there  and  emigration  will  set  that  way."  l  The  wide 
spread  commemorations  of  this  month  show  that 
Father  Taylor,  as  usual,  was  right.  They  imply  that 
Emerson  was  not  merely  a  technical  reformer,  but 
stood  to  the  world  as  a  vital  influence  and  repre 
sented  the  general  attitude  of  reform.  Above  all 
thought  rises  the  freedom  to  think ;  above  all  utter 
ance  ranks  the  liberty  to  utter.  The  man  who  first 
asserted  that  liberty  at  a  given  time,  and,  in  assert 
ing  it,  made  it  attractive  and  convincing,  became 
the  leader  of  his  period.  It  was  Emerson  who  did 
this  for  us.  From  the  moment  that  his  volume  called 
Nature  was  published  in  1836,  the  thraldom  of 
Puritanism  was  broken  and  men  were  summoned  to 
follow  the  Inner  Light.  William  Penn  and  the 
early  Friends  had  stretched  out  their  hands  for  this 
attitude,  but  had  never  quite  reached  it,  because 
still  somewhat  fettered  by  the  tradition  of  Bible 
worship,  and  by  a  persecuting  clergy  of  whom  Wil- 
1  Conway  :  Emerson  at  Home  and  Abroad,  p.  66. 


60  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

liam  Penn  complained  that  so  far  from  being  good 
Christians,  they  had  yet  to  learn  to  be  good 
Heathen.1  Yet  Emerson  described  himself,  speak 
ing  to  his  kinsman,  Dr.  Haskins,  as  "more  of  a 
Quaker  than  anything  else."  Channing  did  not 
reach  this  position,  though  he  drew,  as  his  son  tes 
tifies,  nearer  and  nearer  to  it  as  he  grew  older. 
Parker  was  not  absolutely  a  leader,  but  rather  fol 
lowed  Emerson  and  popularized  him.  Emerson, 
and  he  only,  is  the  more  than  Luther  of  these  mod 
ern  days.  We'see  this  through  a  glass  darkly  to-day, 
but  a  hundred  years  hence,  it  will  be  held  unques 
tionable. 

I  was  but  a  boy  of  twelve  when  Emerson's  vol 
ume,  Nature^  was  published.  But  I  was  not  too 
young  to  hear  him  lecture  once  at  the  Cambridge 
Lyceum,  and  I  recall  most  definitely  the  impression 
he  made  on  at  least  one  of  his  youngest  hearers. 
The  lectures  were  held  in  an  old  building,  preceding 
the  present  Lyceum  Hall,  and  it  was  the  custom  of 
the  village  boys,  as  is  still  the  habit  in  small  coun 
try  towns,  to  attend  each  lecture,  take  seats  very 
near  the  front,  and  within  fifteen  minutes  retire, 
one  by  one,  without  much  mercy  on  the  lecturer  or 
the  audience.  No  doubt  I  took  my  full  share  of  this 
form  of  intellectual  experiment  —  which  in  Cam 
bridge  has  especial  force  from  the  fact  that  we  re 
tired  not  down  the  stairs,  but  by  dropping  through 
a  mysterious  hole  in  the  slanting  floor  among  the 
1  No  Cross,  No  Crown,  ii.  76. 


ADDRESS  OF  T.  W.  HIGGINSON  61 

upper  seats;  but  I  remember  very  well  that  on  the 
occasion  of  Mr.  Emerson's  lecture,  I  was  gradually 
deserted  by  my  fellows  and  sat  through  the  lecture 
alone.  Being  reproached  afterwards  by  my  play 
mates  for  this  want  of  fidelity  to  their  customs,  I 
could  only  plead  that  "I  liked  to  hear  that  man;" 
and  when  asked  if  I  understood  what  he  said,  I 
honestly  replied  "No."  It  now  seems  to  me  that 
not  one  of  his  grown-up  hearers  could  have  paid 
him  a  greater  compliment.  What  had  reached  me 
was  the  personality  of  the  man.  Long  after  this, 
when  I  read  in  Lowell's  words,  "We  do  not  go  to 
hear  what  Emerson  says,  so  much  as  to  hear  Emer 
son,"  I  felt  that  this  was  just  what  I  had  done  as  a 
child. 

It  was  in  college  that  I  read  his  books  and  reread 
them,  but  only  came  gradually  to  recognize  him  as 
being  what  he  was,  the  most  resolute  reformer,  not 
excepting  Garrison,  whom  our  nation  had  produced. 
This  conviction  took  definite  form,  perhaps,  at  the 
first  meeting  of  the  Free  Religious  Association  in 
1868,  when  he  came  last  among  the  speakers  and 
selected  for  praise  the  last  but  one,  who  had  dis 
tinctly  objected  to  the  word  "Christian"  as  being 
a  limitation.  Mr.  Emerson  following,  said,  "I  have 
listened  with  great  pleasure  to  the  lessons  we  have 
heard.  To  many,  to  those  last  spoken,  I  have  found 
so  much  in  common  with  my  own  thought  that  I 
have  little  left  to  say."  The  form  of  the  phrase  is 
evidently  not  given  with  precise  accuracy,  but  I  fol- 


62  THE   EMERSON  CENTENARY 

low  the  printed  report.  He  said  later  in  his  speech, 
"The  child,  the  young  student  finds  scope  in  his 
mathematics  and  chemistry  or  natural  history,  be 
cause  he  finds  a  truth  larger  than  he  is;  finds  him 
self  continually  instructed.  But  in  churches,  every 
healthy  and  thoughtful  mind  finds  itself  in  some 
thing  less;  it  is  checked,  cribbed,  confined."  No 
thing  said  was  on  the  whole  so  trenchant  as  this. 
The  Rev.  Richard  Cecil  said  in  England,  about 
1777,  that  "If  o$e  good  upright  man  should  deny 
Christianity,  he  would  do  the  faith  of  England  more 
harm  than  all  the  sneers  of  Voltaire  or  all  the  senti- 
mentalism  of  Rousseau."  In  the  sense  in  which  Cecil 
used  the  words,  Emerson  was  that  man.  But  these 
words  were  spoken  more  than  a  century  ago,  at  a 
time  of  sectarian  narrowness  which  it  is  now  hard 
to  recall;  and  the  very  terms  "faith"  and  "Chris 
tianity"  are  now  habitually  used  in  a  far  wider 
sense.  To  Mr.  Cecil,  Emerson  would  have  seemed 
anti-Christian ;  but  now  a  chorus  of  those  who  call 
themselves  Christians  speaks  his  praise.  We  have 
the  striking  testimony  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Haskins,  his 
near  kinsman,  that  Mr.  Emerson  preferred  even  to 
speak  of  the  Deity  as  "It,"  and  nothing  more  illus 
trates  the  power  of  his  essentially  reverential  tone 
of  mind  than  that  this  same  kinsman,  an  Episcopal 
clergyman  of  unimpeached  standing,  was  so  im 
pressed  by  what  Emerson  said  that  he  himself  went 
on  to  vindicate  this  pronoun  "It"  as  being,  in  it 
self,  not  meaningless  or  even  irreverent,  but  rather 


ADDRESS  OF  T.  W.  HIGGINSON  63 

a  good  selection  of  words,  as  Mr.  Emerson  used  it, 
standing  simply  for  God's  omnipresence.1  We  know 
also  that  while  Emerson  found  formal  prayer  at 
stated  intervals  impossible  to  him,  yet  he  said,  "As 
well  may  the  child  live  without  its  mother's  milk 
as  the  soul  without  prayer;"  while  he  also  said, 
44  Do  not  speak  of  God  much.  After  a  very  little 
conversation  on  the  Highest  Nature,  thoughts  de 
sert  us  and  we  run  into  formalism ! ! "  -  He  never 
recognized  the  leadership  of  Jesus  Christ  as  that 
of  an  absolutely  infallible  guide ;  yet  to  show  that 
he  guarded  against  overstatement  on  this  ground 
also,  we  have  the  remarkable  passage,  preserved 
by  Miss  E.  P.  Peabody  from  the  original  manu 
script  of  his  Divinity  Hall  address,  —  a  passage 
left  out  for  want  of  time  only,  and  warning  his 
hearers  against  making  even  truth  a  fanaticism: 
"Too  soon  we  shall  have  the  puppyism  of  a  preten 
sion  of  looking  down  on  the  head  of  all  human  cul 
ture;  setting  up  against  Jesus  Christ  every  little 
self  magnified."3 

Attempts  have  always  been  made  to  disparage 
Emerson,  on  the  ground  that  he  was  not,  even  in 
reform,  a  system-maker,  but  was, fragmentary.  This 
trait  seems  to  me  more  and  more  to  have  been  one 
of  his  highest  titles  to  immortality.  System-makers 
are  short-lived ;  each  makes  his  single  contribution, 

1  Haskins's  Emerson,  p.  130. 

a  E.  W.  Emerson  in  Prophets  of  Liberalism,  p.  49. 

8  Peabody,  Reminiscences  of  Dr.  Channing,  p.  373. 


64  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

and  the  world  passes  on.  They  are  finger-posts  in 
history;  but  the  man  who  dares  to  be  himself  is  not 
the  finger-post,  but  the  runner.  Few  now  read  Aris 
totle  ;  but  Seneca,  Epictetue,  Marcus  Antoninus  yield 
us  new  translations  and  editions  every  year.  We 
have  them  for  manuals  and  give  them  to  our  chil 
dren.  What  the  system  of  each  may  be  is  quite 
secondary  —  each  offers  us  a  series  of  thoughts, 
detached  or  otherwise;  and  each  of  these  thoughts 
may  turn  out  great  enough  to  mould  a  life.  Such 
are  the  thoughts  we  get  from  Emerson.  We  may 
say  of  his  works  what  Renan  said  so  finely  of  Mar 
cus  Antoninus,  "His  works  will  never  grow  anti 
quated,  because  they  offer  no  dogma." 

Let  us  all  be  Platos  and  Newtons,  if  you  please; 
or,  if  you  prefer,  Homers  and  Shakespeares ;  let 
our  school  committees  hunt  them  up  in  abundance, 
if  possible,  in  every  school  district;  yet  let  us  not 
lose  faith  in  the  greatness  of  the  spontaneous  or 
fragmentary  life ;  that  is,  the  life  which  becomes  at 
its  highest  moments  a  source  of  vital  influence. 
Open  your  Emerson  anywhere  and  you  are  presently 
touched  by  the  vivid  power  of  a  phrase,  a  sentence; 
or  perhaps  —  in  his  earlier  addresses  especially  — 
by  the  cadence  of  some  fine  paragraph.  Read,  for 
instance,  that  description  of  the  boyish  student  to 
be  found  in  his  address  at  Dartmouth  College 
(1838):- 

"  In  solitude,  in  a  remote  village,  the  ardent  youth 
loiters  and  mourns.  With  inflamed  eye,  in  his  sleep- 


ADDRESS  OF  T.  W.  HIGGINSON  65 

ing  wilderness,  he  has  read  the  story  of  the  Emperor 
Charles  the  Fifth,  until  his  fancy  has  brought  home 
to  the  surrounding  woods  the  faint  roar  of  cannon 
ades  in  the  Milanese,  and  marches  in  Germany.  He 
is  curious  concerning  that  man's  day.  What  filled 
it?  the  crowded  orders,  the  stern  decisions,  the  for 
eign  despatches,  the  Castilian  etiquette?  The  soul 
answers  —  Behold  his  day  here !  In  the  sighing  of 
these  woods,  in  the  quiet  of  these  gray  fields,  in  the 
cool  breeze  that  sings  out  of  these  northern  mount 
ains;  in  the  workmen,  the  boys,  the  maidens  you 
meet,  —  in  the  hopes  of  the  morning,  the  ennui  of 
noon,  and  sauntering  of  the  afternoon ;  in  the  dis 
quieting  comparisons;  in  the  regrets  at  want  of 
vigor ;  in  the  great  idea  and  the  puny  execution ; 
—  behold  Charles  the  Fifth's  day;  another,  yet  the 
same;  behold  Chatham's,  Hampden's,  Bayard's, 
Alfred's,  Scipio's,  Pericles's  day,  — day  of  all  that 
are  born  of  women.  The  difference  of  circumstance 
is  merely  costume.  ...  Be  lord  of  a  day,  through 
wisdom  and  justice,  and  you  can  put  up  your  history 
books."1 

Fifty  years  ago  there  must  have  been  more  than 
a  thousand  men  and  women  in  America  and  in  Eng 
land  who  could  look  back  on  that  passage,  as  I  did, 
and  say  of  it,  "At  any  rate,  it  was  the  making  of 
me."  A  hundred  thousand  others  since  then  may 
have,  perhaps,  looked  back  and  said  of  those  first 
thousand  converts,  "It  was  they  who  made  us."  You 
1  Nature,  Addresses  and  Lectures,  pp.  157-159. 


66  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

might  as  well  question  the  creative  power  of  pas 
sages  in  the  Book  of  Psalms. 

I  began  with  a  picture  of  Emerson  as  he  showed 
himself  to  an  essentially  childish  mind.  Let  me 
close  with  a  glimpse  of  the  scene  when  he  was 
brought,  for  the  first  time,  before  a  thousand  half- 
childish  minds,  gathered  beneath  the  solemn  moss- 
hung  forests  of  South  Carolina,  early  in  the  Civil 
War.  It  was  the  first  regiment  of  freed  slaves  mus 
tered  into  the  service  of  the  Union ;  and  they  stood, 
with  that  perfect  stillness  of  which  they  were  ca 
pable,  while  their  white  surgeon,  Dr.  Seth  Rogers, 
of  Worcester,  a  man  who  possessed  their  confidence 
in  all  ways,  read  before  them  at  their  Sunday  ser 
vice,  by  his  own  wish,  the  whole  of  Emerson's 
"  Boston  Hymn."  When  he  came  to  the  lines  — 

"  Pay  ransom  to  the  owner 

And  fill  his  cup  to  the  brim. 
Who  is  the  owner  ?  The  slave  is  owner, 
And  ever  was.   Pay  him  ! "  — 

I  watched  their  faces  as  he  read.  There  was  no  look 
of  wild  excitement,  no  air  of  aroused  and  selfish 
desire,  but  a  serene  religious  expression,  a  look  of 
absolute  security,  as  if  the  Almighty  had  at  last 
heard  their  prayers  and  this  far-off  poet  was  his 
messenger. 

The  Chairman  then  introduced  Professor  William 
James. 


ADDRESS  OF  WILLIAM  JAMES  67 


ADDRESS   OF  WILLIAM   JAMES 

THE  pathos  of  death  is  this,  that  when  the  days  of 
one's  life  are  ended,  those  days  that  were  so  crowded 
with  business  and  felt  so  heavy  in  their  passing, 
what  remains  of  one  in  memory  should  usually  be  so 
slight  a  thing.  The  phantom  of  an  attitude,  the 
echo  of  a  certain  mode  of  thought,  a  few  pages  of 
print,  some  invention,  or  some  victory  we  gained  in  a 
brief  critical  hour,  are  all  that  can  survive  the  best 
of  us.  It  is  as  if  the  whole  of  a  man's  significance 
had  now  shrunk  into  the  phantom  of  an  attitude, 
into  a  mere  musical  note  or  phrase,  suggestive  of  his 
singularity  —  happy  are  those  whose  singularity 
gives  a  note  so  clear  as  to  be  victorious  over  the  inev 
itable  pity  of  such  a  diminution  and  abridgment. 

An  ideal  wraith  like  this,  of  Emerson's  singular 
ity,  hovers  over  all  Concord  to-day,  taking  in  the 
minds  of  those  of  you  who  were  his  neighbors  and 
intimates  a  somewhat  fuller  shape,  remaining  more 
abstract  in  the  younger  generation,  but  bringing 
home  to  all  of  us  the  notion  of  a  spirit  indescribably 
precious.  The  form  that  so  lately  moved  upon  these 
streets  and  country  roads,  or  awaited  in  these  fields 
and  woods  the  beloved  Muse's  visits,  is  now  dust ; 
but  the  soul's  note,  the  spiritual  voice,  rises  strong 
and  clear  above  the  uproar  of  the  times,  and  seems 
securely  destined  to  exert  an  ennobling  influence  over 
future  generations. 


68  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

What  gave  a  flavor  so  matchless  to  Emerson's 
individuality  was,  even  more  than  his  rich  mental 
gifts,  their  combination.  Rarely  has  a  man  so  known 
the  limits  of  his  genius  or  so  unfailingly  kept  within 
them.  "  Stand  by  your  order,"  he  used  to  say  to  youth 
ful  students ;  and  perhaps  the  paramount  impression 
one  gets  of  his  life  is  of  his  loyalty  to  his  own 
type  and  mission.  The  type  was  that  of  what  he 
liked  to  call  the  scholar,  the  perceiver  of  pure  truth, 
and  the  mission  was  that  of  the  reporter  in  worthy 
form  of  each  perception.  The  day  is  good,  he  said, 
in  which  we  have  the  most  perceptions.  There  are 
times  when  the  cawing  of  a  crow,  a  weed,  a  snow- 
flake,  or  a  farmer  planting  in  his  field,  become  sym 
bols  to  the  intellect  of  truths  equal  to  those  which 
the  most  majestic  phenomena  can  open.  Let  me 
mind  my  own  charge,  then,  walk  alone,  consult  the 
sky,  the  field  and  forest,  sedulously  waiting  every 
morning  for  the  news  concerning  the  structure  of 
the  universe  which  the  good  Spirit  will  give  me. 

This  was  the  first  half  of  Emerson,  but  only  half , 
for  his  genius  was  insatiate  for  expression,  and  his 
truth  had  to  be  clad  in  the  right  verbal  garment. 
The  form  of  the  garment  was  so  vital  with  Emer 
son  that  it  is  impossible  to  separate  it  from  the  mat 
ter.  They  form  a  chemical  combination,  —  thoughts 
which  would  be  trivial  expressed  otherwise  are 
important  through  the  nouns  and  verbs  to  which 
he  married  them.  The  style  is  the  man,  it  has  been 
said :  the  man  Emerson's  mission  culminated  in  his 


ADDRESS  OF  WILLIAM  JAMES  69 

style,  and  if  we  must  define  him  in  one  word,  we 
have  to  call  him  Artist.  He  was  an  artist  whose 
medium  was  verbal  and  who  wrought  in  spiritual 
material. 

This  duty  of  spiritual  seeing  and  reporting  deter 
mined  the  whole  tenor  of  his  life.  It  was  to  shield 
it  from  invasion  and  distraction  that  he  dwelt  in  the 
country,  and  that  he  consistently  declined  to  entan 
gle  himself  with  associations  or  to  encumber  himself 
with  functions  which,  however  he  might  believe  in 
them,  he  felt  were  duties  for  other  men  and  not  for 
him.  Even  the  care  of  his  garden,  "  with  its  stoop- 
ings  and  fingerings  in  a  few  yards  of  space,"  he 
found  "  narrowing  and  poisoning,"  and  took  to  long 
free  walks  and  saunterings  instead,  without  apology. 
"  Causes  "  innumerable  sought  to  enlist  him  as  their 
"  worker  "  —  all  got  his  smile  and  word  of  sympa 
thy,  but  none  entrapped  him  into  service.  The  strug 
gle  against  slavery  itself,  deeply  as  it  appealed  to 
him,  found  him  firm  :  "  God  must  govern  his  own 
world,  and  knows  his  way  out  of  this  pit  without 
my  desertion  of  my  post,  which  has  none  to  guard  it 
but  me.  I  have  quite  other  slaves  to  face  than  those 
Negroes,  to  wit,  imprisoned  thoughts  far  back  in  the 
brain  of  man,  and  which  have  no  watchman  or  lover 
or  defender  but  me."  This  in  reply  to  the  possible 
questions  of  his  conscience.  To  hot-blooded  moral 
ists  with  more  objective  ideas  of  duty,  such  a  fidel 
ity  to  the  limits  of  his  genius  must  often  have  made 
him  seem  provokiugly  remote  and  unavailable ;  but 


70  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

we  who  can  see  things  in  more  liberal  perspective 
must  unqualifiedly  approve  the  results.  The  fault 
less  tact  with  which  he  kept  his  safe  limits  while  he 
so  dauntlessly  asserted  himself  within  them  is  an 
example  fitted  to  give  heart  to  other  theorists  and 
artists  the  world  over. 

The  insight  and  creed  from  which  Emerson's  life 
followed  can  be  best  summed  up  in  his  own  verse  :  — 

"  So  nigh  is  grandeur  to  our  dust, 
So  near  is  God  to  man  !  " 

Through  the  individual  fact  there  ever  shone  for 
him  the  effulgence  of  the  Universal  Reason.  The 
great  Cosmic  Intellect  terminates  and  houses  itself 
in  mortal  men  and  passing  hours.  Each  of  us  is  an 
angle  of  its  eternal  vision,  and  the  only  way  to  be 
true  to  our  Maker  is  to  be  loyal  to  ourselves.  "  O 
rich  and  various  Man  !  "  he  cries,  "  thou  palace  of 
sight  and  sound,  carrying  in  thy  senses  the  morning 
and  the  night  and  the  unfathomable  galaxy  ;  in  thy 
brain  the  geometry  of  the  city  of  God  ;  in  thy  heart 
the  bower  of  love  and  the  realms  of  right  and 
wrong." 

If  the  individual  open  thus  directly  into  the  Ab 
solute,  it  follows  that  there  is  something  in  each  and 
all  of  us,  even  the  lowliest,  that  ought  not  to  consent 
to  borrowing  traditions  and  living  at  second  hand. 
"  If  John  was  perfect,  why  are  you  and  I  alive  ?  " 
writes  Emerson.  "  As  long  as  any  man  exists  there 
is  some  need  of  him ;  let  him  fight  for  his  own." 


ADDRESS  OF  WILLIAM  JAMES  71 

This  faith  that  in  a  life  at  first  haud  there  is  some 
thing  sacred  is  perhaps  the  most  characteristic  note 
in  Emerson's  writings.  The  hottest  side  of  him  is 
this  non-conformist  persuasion,  and  if  his  temper 
could  ever  verge  on  common  irascibility,  it  would  be 
by  reason  of  the  passionate  character  of  his  feelings 
on  this  point.  The  world  is  still  new  and  untried.  In 
seeing  freshly,  and  not  in  hearing  of  what  others 
saw,  shall  a  man  find  what  truth  is.  "  Each  one  of 
us  can  bask  in  the  great  morning  which  rises  out  of 
the  Eastern  Sea,  and  be  himself  one  of  the  children 
of  the  light."  "  Trust  thyself,  every  heart  vibrates  to 
that  iron  string.  There  is  a  time  in  each  man's  edu 
cation  when  he  must  arrive  at  the  conviction  that 
imitation  is  suicide  ;  when  he  must  take  himself  for 
better  or  worse  as  his  portion  ;  and  know  that  though 
the  wide  universe  is  full  of  good,  no  kernel  of  nour 
ishing  corn  can  come  to  him  but  through  his  toil  be 
stowed  on  that  plot  of  ground  which  it  was  given 
him  to  till." 

The  matchless  eloquence  with  which  Emerson  pro 
claimed  the  sovereignty  of  the  living  individual  elec 
trified  and  emancipated  his  generation,  and  this 
bugle-blast  will  doubtless  be  regarded  by  future  critics 
as  the  soul  of  his  message.  The  present  man  is  the 
aboriginal  reality,  the  Institution  is  derivative,  and 
the  past  man  is  irrelevant  and  obliterate  for  present 
issues.  "  If  any  one  would  lay  an  axe  to  your  tree 
with  a  text  from  1  John,  v.  7,  or  a  sentence  from 
Saint  Paul,  say  to  him,"  Emerson  wrote,  "  '  My  tree 


72  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

is  Ygdrasil,  the  tree  of  life.'  Let  him  know  by  your 
security  that  your  conviction  is  clear  and  sufficient, 
and,  if  he  were  Paul  himself,  that  you  also  are  here 
and  with  your  Creator."  "  Cleave  ever  to  God,"  he 
insisted,  "  against  the  name  of  God ;  "  —  and  so,  in 
spite  of  the  intensely  religious  character  of  his  total 
thought,  when  he  began  his  career  it  seemed  to  many 
of  his  brethren  in  the  clerical  profession  that  he  was 
little  more  than  an  iconoclast  and  desecrator. 

Emerson's  belief  that  the  individual  must  in  rea 
son  be  adequate  to  the  vocation  for  which  the  Spirit 
of  the  world  has  called  him  into  being  is  the  source 
of  those  sublime  pages,  hearteners  and  sustainers  of 
our  youth,  in  which  he  urges  his  hearers  to  be  in- 
corruptibly  true  to  their  own  private  conscience. 
Nothing  can  harm  the  man  who  rests  in  his  appointed 
place  and  character.  Such  a  man  is  invulnerable ;  he 
balances  the  universe,  balances  it  as  much  by  keep 
ing  small  when  he  is  small  as  by  being  great  and 
spreading  when  he  is  great.  "  I  love  and  honor  Epa- 
minondas,"  said  Emerson,  "  but  I  do  not  wish  to  be 
Epaminondas.  I  hold  it  more  just  to  love  the  world 
of  this  hour  than  the  world  of  his  hour.  Nor  can  you, 
if  I  am  true,  excite  me  to  the  least  uneasiness  by  say 
ing,  '  He  acted  and  thou  sittest  still.'  I  see  action  to 
be  good  when  the  need  is,  and  sitting  still  to  be  also 
good.  Epaminondas,  if  he  was  the  man  I  take  him 
for,  would  have  sat  still  with  joy  and  peace,  if  his 
lot  had  been  mine.  Heaven  is  large,  and  affords  space 
for  all  modes  of  love  and  fortitude."  "  The  fact  that 


ADDRESS  OF  WILLIAM  JAMES  73 

I  am  here  certainly  shows  me  that  the  Soul  has  need 
of  an  organ  here,  and  shall  I  not  assume  the  post  ?  " 

The  vanity  of  all  super-serviceableness  and  pretense 
was  never  more  happily  set  forth  than  by  Emerson 
in  the  many  passages  in  which  he  develops  this  as 
pect  of  his  philosophy.  Character  infallibly  proclaims 
itself.  "  Hide  your  thoughts !  —  hide  the  sun  and 
moon.  They  publish  themselves  to  the  universe. 
They  will  speak  through  you  though  you  were  dumb. 
They  will  flow  out  of  your  actions,  your  manners  and 
your  face.  .  .  .  Don't  say  things :  What  you  are 
stands  over  you  the  while  and  thunders  so  that  I  can 
not  say  what  you  say  to  the  contrary.  .  .  .  What  a 
man  is  engraves  itself  upon  him  in  letters  of  light. 
Concealment  avails  him  nothing,  boasting  nothing. 
There  is  confession  in  the  glances  of  our  eyes  ;  in 
our  smiles ;  in  salutations  ;  and  the  grasp  of  hands. 
His  sin  bedaubs  him,  mars  all  his  good  impression. 
Men  know  not  why  they  do  not  trust  him,  but  they 
do  not  trust  him.  His  vice  glasses  the  eye,  casts  lines 
of  mean  expression  in  the  cheek,  pinches  the  nose,  sets 
the  mark  of  the  beast  upon  the  back  of  the  head,  and 
writes,  O  fool !  fool !  on  the  forehead  of  a  king.  If 
you  would  not  be  known  to  do  a  thing,  never  do  it ; 
a  man  may  play  the  fool  in  the  drifts  of  a  desert, 
but  every  grain  of  sand  shall  seem  to  see.  —  How 
can  a  man  be  concealed  ?  How  can  he  be  concealed  ?  " 

On  the  other  hand,  never  was  a  sincere  word  or  a 
sincere  thought  utterly  lost.  "  Never  a  magnanimity 
fell  to  the  ground  but  there  is  some  heart  to  greet 


74:  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

and  accept  it  unexpectedly.  .  .  .  The  hero  fears  not 
that  if  he  withstood  the  avowal  of  a  just  and  brave 
act,  it  will  go  unwitnessed  and  unloved.  One  knows 
it,  —  himself,  —  and  is  pledged  by  it  to  sweetness  of 
peace  and  to  nobleness  of  aim,  which  will  prove  in 
the  end  a  better  proclamation  than  the  relating  of 
the  incident." 

The  same  indefeasible  right  to  be  exactly  what  one 
is,  provided  one  only  be  authentic,  spreads  itself,  in 
Emerson's  way  of  thinking,  from  persons  to  things 
and  to  times  and  places.  No  date,  no  position  is 
insignificant,  if  the  life  that  fills  it  out  be  only 
genuine :  — 

"  In  solitude,  in  a  remote  village,  the  ardent  youth 
loiters  and  mourns.  With  inflamed  eye,  in  this  sleep 
ing  wilderness,  he  has  read  the  story  of  the  Emperor 
Charles  the  Fifth,  until  his  fancy  has  brought  home 
to  the  surrounding  woods  the  faint  roar  of  can 
nonades  in  the  Milanese,  and  marches  in  Germany. 
He  is  curious  concerning  that  man's  day.  What  filled 
it?  The  crowded  orders,  the  stern  decisions,  the 
foreign  despatches,  the  Castilian  etiquette  ?  The  soul 
answers  —  Behold  his  day  here !  In  the  sighing  of 
these  woods,  in  the  quiet  of  these  gray  fields,  in  the 
cool  breeze  that  sings  out  of  these  northern  mount 
ains;  in  the  workmen,  the  boys,  the  maidens  you 
meet,  —  in  the  hopes  of  the  morning,  the  ennui  of 
noon,  and  sauntering  of  the  afternoon ;  in  the  dis 
quieting  comparisons  ;  in  the  regrets  at  want  of  vigor ; 
in  the  great  idea  and  the  puny  execution  :  —  behold 


ADDRESS  OF  WILLIAM  JAMES  75 

Charles  the  Fifth's  day ;  another,  yet  the  same ; 
behold  Chatham's,  Hampden's,  Bayard's,  Alfred's, 
Scipio's,  Pericles's  day,  —  day  of  all  that  are  born  of 
women.  The  difference  of  circumstance  is  merely 
costume.  I  am  tasting  the  self-same  life,  —  its  sweet 
ness,  its  greatness,  its  pain,  —  which  I  so  admire  in 
other  men.  Do  not  foolishly  ask  the  inscrutable, 
obliterated  past  what  it  cannot  tell,  —  the  details  of 
that  nature,  of  that  day,  called  Byron  or  Burke ;  — 
but  ask  it  of  the  enveloping  Now.  .  .  .  Be  lord  of  a 
day  and  you  can  put  up  your  history  books." 

Thus  does  "  the  deep  to-day  which  all  men  scorn" 
receive  from  Emerson  superb  revindication.  "  Other 
world  !  there  is  no  other  world."  All  God's  life  opens 
into  the  individual  particular,  and  here  and  now, 
or  nowhere,  is  reality.  "  The  present  hour  is  the 
decisive  hour,  and  every  day  is  doomsday." 

Such  a  conviction  that  Divinity  is  everywhere  may 
easily  make  of  one  an  optimist  of  the  sentimental 
type  that  refuses  to  speak  ill  of  anything.  Emerson's 
drastic  perception  of  differences  kept  him  at  the 
opposite  pole  from  this  weakness.  After  you  have 
seen  men  a  few  times,  he  could  say,  you  find  most 
of  them  as  alike  as  their  barns  and  pantries,  and 
soon  as  musty  and  as  dreary.  Never  was  such  a  fas 
tidious  lover  of  significance  and  distinction,  and 
never  an  eye  so  keen  for  their  discovery.  His  opti 
mism  had  nothing  in  common  with  that  indiscriminate 
hurrahing  for  the  Universe  with  which  Walt  Whit 
man  has  made  us  familiar.  For  Emerson,  the  indi- 


76  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

vidual  fact  and  moment  were  indeed  suffused  with 
absolute  radiance,  but  it  was  upon  a  condition  that 
saved  the  situation  —  they  must  be  worthy  specimens, 
—  sincere,  authentic,  archetypal;  they  must  have 
made  connection  with  what  he  calls  the  Moral  Sen 
timent,  they  must  in  some  way  act  as  symbolic 
mouthpieces  of  the  Universe's  meaning.  To  know 
just  which  thing  does  act  in  this  way,  and  which 
thing  fails  to  make  the  true  connection,  is  the  secret 
(somewhat  incommunicable,  it  must  be  confessed)  of 
seership,  and  doubtless  we  must  not  expect  of  the 
seer  too  rigorous  a  consistency.  Emerson  himself  was 
a  real  seer.  He  could  perceive  the  full  squalor  of 
the  individual  fact,  but  he  could  also  see  the  trans 
figuration.  He  might  easily  have  found  himself  say 
ing  of  some  present-day  agitator  against  our  Philip 
pine  conquest  what  he  said  of  this  or  that  reformer 
of  his  own  time.  He  might  have  called  him,  as  a 
private  person,  a  tedious  bore  and  canter.  But  he 
would  infallibly  have  added  what  he  then  added: 
"  It  is  strange  and  horrible  to  say  this,  for  I  feel  that 
under  him  and  his  partiality  and  exclusiveness  is 
the  earth  and  the  sea,  and  all  that  in  them  is,  and 
the  axis  round  which  the  Universe  revolves  passes 
through  his  body  where  he  stands." 

Be  it  how  it  may,  then,  this  is  Emerson's  revela 
tion  :  —  The  point  of  any  pen  can  be  an  epitome  of 
reality ;  the  commonest  person's  act,  if  genuinely 
actuated,  can  lay  hold  on  eternity.  This  vision  is  the 
head-spring  of  all  his  outpourings ;  and  it  is  for  this 


ADDRESS  OF   WILLIAM  JAMES  77 

truth,  given  to  no  previous  literary  artist  to  express 
in  such  penetratingly  persuasive  tones,  that  poster 
ity  will  reckon  him  a  prophet,  and,  perhaps  neglect 
ing  other  pages,  piously  turn  to  those  that  convey 
this  message.  His  life  was  one  long  conversation 
with  the  invisible  divine,  expressing  itself  through 
individuals  and  particulars :  —  "So  nigh  is  grandeur 
to  our  dust,  so  near  is  God  to  man ! " 

I  spoke  of  how  shrunken  the  wraith,  how  thin  the 
echo,  of  men  is  after  they  are  departed.  Emerson's 
wraith  comes  to  me  now  as  if  it  were  but  the  very 
voice  of  this  victorious  argument.  His  words  to  this 
effect  are  certain  to  be  quoted  and  extracted  more 
and  more  as  time  goes  on,  and  to  take  their  place 
among  the  Scriptures  of  humanity.  "  'Gainst  death 
and  all  oblivious  enmity  shall  you  pace  forth,"  be 
loved  Master.  As  long  as  our  English  language 
lasts,  men's  hearts  will  be  cheered  and  their  souls 
strengthened  and  liberated  by  the  noble  and  musical 
pages  with  which  you  have  enriched  it. 

The  Chairman  then  said  :  — 

May  I  say  on  your  behalf,  citizens  of  Concord, 
that  we  greet  with  warm  and  peculiar  affection  our 
elder  brother,  George  Frisbie  Hoar. 


78  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

ADDRESS   OF 
GEORGE   FRISBIE  HOAR 

I  AM  proud  and  happy  that  I  am  counted  among  the 
children  of  Concord  on  this  anniversary.  There  are 
many  things  we  are  all  thinking  that  we  cannot  find 
time  to  say  to-day.  There  are  some  things  we  are 
all  thinking  that  Mr.  Emerson  would  not  like  to 
have  us  say.  His  modest  and  discreet  spirit  would 
have  found  something  of  exaggeration  in  it,  even 
coming  from  his  neighbors  and  townsmen. 

We  are  thinking,  all  of  us,  of  that  lovely  and 
delightful  personal  quality,  pure  and  sweet  as  that 
of  an  archangel.  We  are  full  of  the  love  which  every 
one  of  us  who  knew  him  felt  for  him,  from  the  time 
he  first  took  up  his  abode  here  in  his  sylvan  home. 
But  the  town  has  had  other  citizens  of  that  quality. 
That  town  is  poor  that  has  not  had  them.  We  are 
tempted  to  compare  our  philosopher  and  poet  with 
other  great  men,  with  other  thinkers,  and  writers, 
and  poets.  Some  of  us  think  Emerson  the  first 
American  by  the  same  title  by  which  Shakespeare  is 
the  first  Englishman.  Some  of  us  think  of  him  as 
the  only  writer  since  Bacon,  in  whose  essays  a 
thought  quoted  from  Bacon's  essays  seems  to  be  in 
its  natural  place,  —  the  setting  quite  as  costly  as  the 
jewel.  But  I  do  not  think  he  would  have  liked  such 
comparisons.  At  any  rate,  if  they  are  to  be  made, 
let  them  be  made  by  men  without  the  bias  of  a  per 
sonal  affection. 


ADDRESS  OF  GEORGE  FRISBIE  HOAR        79 

Yet  our  celebration  would  be  cold  indeed,  were  we 
to  leave  out  of  it  the  human  feeling,  —  the  feeling  of 
pride  and  love,  —  in  which  we  have  a  right  to  indulge 
as  his  townsmen  and  his  countrymen. 

When  the  young  philosopher,  in  his  first  produc 
tion  which  might  be  called  public,  —  his  Bowdoin 
Prize  Essay,  in  1820,  —  disclosed  his  aspiration  and 
his  ideal  of  excellence,  he  prefaced  it  with  these 
lines.  He  was  then  seventeen  years  old. 

"  Guide  my  way 

Through  fair  Lyceum's  walk,  the  green  retreats 
Of  Academus,  and  the  thymy  vale 
Where,  oft  enchanted  with  Socratic  sounds, 
Ilissus  pure  devolved  his  tuneful  stream 
In  gentler  murmurs.     From  the  blooming  store 
Of  these  auspicious  fields,  may  I  unblamed 
Transplant  some  living  blossoms  to  adorn 
My  native  clime." 

Surely  that  aspiration  was  accomplished.  Ah, 
sweetest  of  Evangelists!  Here  in  these  fields  of 
ours  stood  your  feet  when  you  uttered  your  message 
to  mankind.  You  walked  by  our  river  and  our  ponds, 
like  Lycidas,  the  very  genius  of  the  shore.  You 
transplanted  here,  unblamed,  the  living  blossoms  of 
the  groves  of  Academe.  You  waked  again  the  echoes 
of  the  voice  of  Plato,  mingled  with  Ilissus'  tuneful 
murmurs,  in  our  woods  and  fields  and  by  our  Indian 
stream. 

I  do  not  undertake  to  speak  of  Mr.  Emerson's 
service  to  the  youth  of  his  country,  as  a  guide  to 


80  THE   EMERSON   CENTENARY 

the  best  literature,  or  as  a  counsellor  and  inspirer  to 
that  noble  and  brave  behavior  of  which  he  was, 
himself,  so  admirable  an  example.  I  will  not  speak 
of  him  as  a  critic,  to  whose  almost  infallible  touch 
stone  every  man  brought  his  metal  to  see  if  it  were 
gold.  I  will  not  undertake  to  speak  of  him  as  a 
poet,  or  as  an  orator,  rising,  on  fit  occasion,  to  the 
loftiest  eloquence. 

I  have  time  to  speak  of  him  in  but  one  aspect. 
That  is,  the  contribution  he  made  to  the  knowledge 
by  mankind  of  spiritual  laws. 

I  think  he  had  the  farthest  and  clearest  spiritual 
discernment  of  any  man  who  has  lived  in  modern 
times.  His  vision  was  not  only  keen  and  far-sighted, 
but  he  was  singularly  free  from  the  things  that  dis 
tort  or  disturb.  There  was  no  local  attraction,  or 
temptation,  or  heat,  or  blur.  So  we  may  take  him 
as  the  best  witness  we  know  of  to  the  spiritual  facts 
which  are  all  around  us  and  close  to  us,  but  yet  so 
many  of  which  we  cannot  know,  or  know  but  imper 
fectly,  by  any  seeing  or  hearing  of  our  own.  What 
we  see,  he  saw  more  clearly.  What  we  hear,  he  heard 
more  distinctly.  And  always  he  sees  a  face  we  can 
not  see,  and  hears  a  voice  we  cannot  hear.  Now,  to 
what  does  this  witness,  the  best  witness  we  can  find 
so  far,  certify  ?  Whether  any  human  intelligence  be 
absolutely  trustworthy,  or  any  human  judgment  be 
absolutely  sure,  in  its  report  of  such  things,  or  in 
determining  their  value  and  quality,  we  need  not  stop 
to  inquire.  This  is,  in  our  opinion,  the  best  we  have 


ADDRESS  OF  GEORGE  FRISBIE  HOAR        81 

at  command.  What  are  the  things  which  this  man 
of  farthest  and  profoundest  vision  has  to  report? 
What  is  the  estimate  of  them  by  the  judgment  the 
most  accurate  in  its  poise  ?  What  do  they  weigh  by 
these  balances  in  which  there  is  no  dust  ? 

I  do  not  mean  only  that  he  saw  what  no  other  man 
can  see.  I  mean,  too,  what  other  men  see  dimly  and 
doubtfully,  but  are  the  more  certain  of  because  he 
saw  it  too.  Persons  on  the  deck  see  a  dim  object  or 
a  cloud  of  smoke  in  the  horizon.  Some  conjecture 
one  thing,  and  some  another.  Then  comes  the  pilot 
with  his  far  sight  and  his  trained  eye,  and  tells  you 
that  it  is  a  steamer,  or  a  ship.  He  knows  the  line  to 
which  she  belongs,  and  the  name  of  the  vessel.  He 
only,  it  may  be,  confirms  what  some  of  the  rest  have 
said.  But  what  other  men  guessed,  he  knew. 

Every  man  who  is  seeking  a  spiritual  life  finds  in 
Emerson  his  own  faith,  if  he  have  faith,  as  the 
Christian  sects  find  theirs  in  the  Saviour.  Now,  what 
are  the  things  in  which  our  confidence  is  strengthened 
and  deepened  by  the  fact  that  he  tells  us  they  are 
true  ?  Some  of  them  —  and  we  may  thank  God  for 
it  —  we  may  see  also  for  ourselves.  Some  of  them  he 
reveals  to  us  and  makes  clear  to  us.  But  we  can  take 
the  courage  that  they  give  us  from  the  fact  that  the 
clearest  eyes,  and  the  best  intelligence,  and  the  most 
dispassionate  judgment  that  has  appeared  among  men 
for  many  a  day  adds  to  the  imperfect  evidence  of  our 
intelligence,  the  more  perfect  evidence  of  his.  I 
cannot,  of  course,  in  a  few  minutes,  enumerate  all 


82  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

the  things  he  has  reported  to  us.  It  would  take  a 
long,  and  careful,  and  profound  study  to  comprehend 
them  myself. 

He  has  taught  us  the  virtue  of  completeness,  and 
courage,  and  sincerity  of  utterance.  In  dealing  with 
the  things  that  pertain  to  the  soul  he  utters  no  half- 
truths,  no  pious  frauds.  He  gives  us  no  milk  for 
babes.  The  purpose  of  Emerson,  like  that  of  Milton, 
is  to  justify  the  ways  of  God  to  man,  and  they  do 
not  need  to  be  clothed  in  a  veil.  God  is  not  to  be 
seen,  as  Moses  saw  him,  from  behind. 

He  affirms  that  inspiration,  and  the  [process  of 
revelation,  did  not  end  with  the  Apostles  and  the 
Scriptures.  It  is  going  on  to-day,  and  all  the  time, 
to  him  that  hath  ears  to  hear.  The  bush  is  burning 
still. 

The  spiritual  message  comes  to  each  man  for  him 
self,  which  he  can  trust  and  which  he  must  act  upon. 
"  Trust  thyself !  Every  nerve  vibrates  to  that  iron 
string."  The  universe  is  for  the  building  up  of  indi 
vidual  character.  Each  soul  is  to  be  a  star  and  dwell 
apart.  Men  should  greet  each  other  every  morning 
as  coming  from  far  countries  —  like  the  Gods,  who 
sit  apart,  and  talk  from  peak  to  peak  all  around 
Olympus. 

Mr.  Emerson  said  of  his  own  style  that  his  works 
were  made  up  of  infinitely  repellent  particles.  This 
is  in  a  sense  true  of  humanity  —  as  he  thought  it 
should  be.  But  he  has  reaffirmed  for  us,  and  taught 
us  anew  the  value  of  the  human  affections,  and 


ADDRESS  OF  GEORGE  FRISBIE   HOAR        83 

to  prize  the  great  virtues  to  which  our  race  has 
attained  thus  far.  He  was  a  royal  and  noble  lover. 
He  loved  wife,  and  children,  and  home,  and  neigh 
bor,  and  friend,  and  town,  and  country.  He  loved 
liberty,  and  justice,  and  hope,  and  courage.  His 
picture  of  the  New  England  Town,  for  which  Con 
cord  sat ;  his  Boston  Hymn ;  his  Fortune  of  the  Re 
public,  are  the  high-water  mark  which  the  love  of 
country,  and  of  birthplace,  and  of  town  had  reached 
at  that  time. 

Has  any  man  spoken  to  us  like  him  of  the  virtue 
of  a  good  hope,  since  the  Apostle  placed  it  forever 
in  the  centre  of  the  mighty  group  ?  He  saw  that 
crime  and  sin  led  all  souls  to  the  good.  The  cosmic 
results  will  be  the  same  whatever  the  daily  events 
may  be. 

He  was  eminently  a  reconciler.  His  larger  orbit 
enclosed  all  lesser  orbits,  and  even  all  divergent  lines. 

One  thing  he  saw  which  mankind  have  not  seen. 
That  is,  that  forever  the  slave  is  owner,  and  forever 
the  victim  is  victor. 

So,  when  Freedom,Virtue,  Religion,  Justice,  Love, 
Patriotism,  call  their  witnesses  his  name  will  be  the 
first  of  our  time  to  be  called.  So  far  as  mortal  testi 
mony  can  prove  it,  they  can  rest  the  case  with  him. 

He  has  made  the  best  statement  in  all  secular 
literature  of  the  doctrine  of  immortality.  He  shows 
us  that  the  world  and  the  human  soul  are  not  only 
unreasonable,  but  inexplicable,  without  it.  Yet  he 
makes  no  absolute  affirmation,  except  that  we  shall 


84  THE   EMERSON  CENTENARY 

be  immortal  if  that  be  best.  Whether  we  shall  know 
each  other  again  is  a  Sunday-school  question.  He 
will  not  spend  his  time  about  it.  Perhaps,  as  he  says 
of  Carlyle,  this  nimble  and  active  spirit  does  not  care 
to  beat  itself  against  walls.  But  he  is  not,  like  Carlyle, 
a  destroyer  or  a  scorner.  He  worships  no  demon  of 
mere  force.  If  he  does  not  know  what  we  long  to 
know  of  another  world,  he  pays  due  homage  to  the 
loving  and  wise  Spirit  that  sitteth  as  Sovereign  on 
the  throne  of  this.  Kather  he  believes  that  the  world 
is  but  one  world,  and  that  the  Sovereign  who  reigns 
over  it  —  never  to  be  dethroned  —  knows  very  well 
that  every  road  leads  to  the  gates  of  His  Kingdom. 
He  sees  no  God  of  force  or  of  disdain  looking  down 
on  mankind  as  on  a  race  of  grovelling  swine  or 
chattering  apes.  For  myself,  I  never  read  what 
Emerson  says  about  Immortality,  or  think  of  him 
as  thinking  about  it,  without  summing  it  all  up  in 
Addison's  noble  line,  — 

"  The  Soul,  secure  in  her  existence,  smiles." 

When  Emerson  first  uttered  his  grave  and  cheerful 
voice,  there  still  echoed  in  the  ear  of  mankind  the 
cry  of  disdain  inspired  by  the  diseased  brain  of 
Carlyle,  when  he  imagined  the  serene  and  silent  stars 
looking  down  from  their  eternal  solitudes  on  the 
varied  occupations  of  men.  "  What  thinks  Bootes  of 
them  as  he  leads  his  hunting-dogs  across  the  zenith 
in  their  leash  of  sidereal  fire  ?  "  What  thinks  Bootes 
of  them  ?  Bootes  is  but  a  few  specks  of  shining  dust, 


ADDRESS  OF  GEORGE  FRISBIE  HOAR        85 

glistening  with  putrescent  light,  save  as  he  is  clothed 
with  beauty  and  with  glory  in  the  conscious  soul  of 
man.  The  only  thing  in  the  world,  under  Him  who 
made  it,  that  can  ever  be  truly  an  object  of  reverence 
is  a  human  soul  subjecting  itself,  of  its  own  volition, 
to  a  law  higher  than  its  own  desire.  The  answer  to 
the  seer  of  the  old  world  came  from  the  seer  of  the 
new ;  — 

"  So  nigh  is  grandeur  to  our  dust, 

So  near  is  God  to  man, 
When  Duty  whispers  low,    Thou  must/ 
The  youth  replies,  « I  can.'  " 

Nothing  could  be  more  unbecoming  than  to  speak 
irreverently  of  CarJyle  while  we  are  doing  homage  to 
Emerson.  Emerson  stood  loyally  by  his  friends,  by 
that  friend  most  loyally  of  all.  Among  Carlyle's 
chief  titles  to  remembrance  by  posterity  will  be 
Emerson's  certificate. 

Still,  Emerson,  though  his  lover  and  admirer, 
admits  that  Carlyle  reminds  him  of  a  sick  giant. 
Carlyle  is  a  hater  of  evil.  He  stands  for  honesty 
and  righteousness.  He  finds  them  hardly  anywhere, 
and  finds  them  least  of  all  in  the  men  who  are 
most  eager  in  trying  to  attain  unto  them.  Until 
honesty  and  righteousness  come  to  the  throne  — 
which  Carlyle  does  not  expect  to  happen  in  his  time 
—  he  proposes  to  maintain  and  to  obey  an  ad  inte 
rim  Sovereign,  who  is  nothing  but  a  poor  and  com 
monplace  tyrant. 

Jowett  well  said  of  him  that  he  was  a  man  with- 


86  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

out  admiration  of  any  active  goodness ;  he  expressed 
his  own  personal  fancies  in  the  likeness  of  intellec 
tual  truths,  and  that  if  he,  himself,  were  engaged  in 
any  work  more  than  usually  good,  Carlyle  would  be 
the  first  person  to  utter  a  powerful  sneer,  and  if  he 
were  seeking  to  know  the  truth,  Carlyle  would  ridi 
cule  the  notion  of  a  homunculus  discovering  the 
truth. 

Wordsworth  said  truly  of  Carlyle  that  he  defied 
all  sympathy.  And  he  said  truly  of  the  Carlyle  tem 
per : — 

"  That  pride, 

How  e'er  disguised  in  its  own  majesty, 
Is  littleness  ;  that  he  who  feels  contempt 
For  any  living  thing  hath  faculties 
That  he  has  never  used,  that  thought  with  him, 
Is  in  its  infancy." 

He  seemed  to  despise  every  good  man.  He  was 
essentially  a  scorner,  and  the  lash  of  his  scorn  fell 
upon  good  men ;  and  his  homage,  which  he  rarely 
gave,  was  given,  in  general,  to  bad  men.  However 
we  may  be  dazzled  by  Carlyle,  our  fixed  star  will  be 
shining  in  the  sky  when  this  meteor  is  gone.  If  we 
may  trust  our  seer  when  he  tells  us  that  evil  is  tem 
porary  and  perishable,  and  that 

"  What  is  excellent, 
As  God  lives,  is  permanent," 

then  the  function  of  the  destroyer  of  evil  is  perish 
able  and  temporary  also. 

Mr.  Emerson's  philosophy  had  no  Stoicism  in  it. 


ADDRESS  OF  GEORGE  FRISBIE  HOAR        87 

If  it  brought  him  ampler  compensations  than  were 
vouchsafed  to  common  men,  grief  also  filled  to  its 
depths  a  larger  heart,  and  touched  with  its  agony 
nerves  more  finely  sensitive  than  those  of  common 
men.  Who  has  uttered,  like  him,  in  that  immortal 
"Threnody,"  the  voice  of  parental  sorrow?  What 
more  loving  heart  ever  mourned  the  loss  of  a  brother's 
love  than  that  which  could  not  be  unlocked  because 
the  key  had  gone  with  Charles  and  Edward  ?  I  re 
member,  as  if  it  were  yesterday,  that  winter  morning 
in  my  early  youth,  when  the  messenger  came  to  my 
father's  door  before  sunrise,  bearing  his  written  mes 
sage  to  one  of  the  household,  "  Everything  wakes 
this  morning,  except  my  darling  boy."  The  noblest 
emotions  of  the  soul  are  nobler  to  us  that  they  have 
moved  him. 

I  have  spoken  very  imperfectly  of  a  part  only  of 
the  messages  Emerson  brought  to  us.  Now,  it  is  not 
enough  for  our  purpose  that  the  intellect  should  see 
these  things.  Men  do  not  like  skeletons  or  anatomies. 
And  they  do  not  like  cold.  These  things  must  come 
to  us,  if  they  are  to  be  living  truths  for  us,  clothed 
and  apparelled  in  regal  splendor;  adorned  and 
wreathed  with  flowers  and  branches  ;  made  sweet  and 
tender  by  the  graces  of  poetry  ;  made  musical  with 
rhythm  and  verse.  They  must  be  spoken  by  eloquent 
lips,  and  the  soul  must  be  opened  to  receive  them  by 
the  glance  of  the  eye,  and  the  tone  of  the  voice,  and 
the  flush  of  the  cheek,  of  the  prophet  who  utters  them. 

We  who  are  the  survivors  of  that  generation,  and 


88  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

who  dwelt  in  the  town  of  his  home,  enjoyed  that 
privilege  also.  I  do  not  know  how  others  may  feel. 
But  I  would  not  be  without  that  sweet  and  tender 
memory  of  the  voice  whose  words  yet  linger  in  my 
ear,  "  nestling,"  as  Lowell  says,  "  in  the  ear,  because 
of  their  music,  and  in  the  heart,  because  of  their 
meaning,"  to  have  heard  Demosthenes  speak  from 
the  Bema,  or  Plato  in  the  Academy. 

To  cite  the  tributes  of  eminent  authorities  to  the 
great  place  of  Mr.  Emerson  in  literature,  and  his 
trustworthiness  as  an  intellectual  and  spiritual  guide, 
would  occupy  not  only  the  day  but  the  year.  We 
cannot  undertake  to  do  that.  But  we  ought  to  be 
certain  that  we  are  not  induced  by  our  love  for  our 
delightful  friend  and  townsman  to  confound  our  own 
narrow  field  of  vision  with  that  of  all  mankind  — 
especially  with  that  of  posterity.  Yet  that  must  be 
a  fixed  star  of  the  first  magnitude,  of  whom  observ 
ers,  whose  stations  are  apart  by  the  distance  of  the 
whole  heavens,  concur  in  so  reporting.  When  the 
Jew,  and  the  Catholic,  and  the  Unitarian,  and  the 
Anglican,  and  the  Calvinist,  and  the  Sceptic  ;  when 
the  Russian,  and  the  German,  and  the  Scotsman, 
concur  with  his  own  countrymen  in  their  estimate 
of  a  religious  teacher,  we  may  fairly  believe  that 
we  have  got  the  verdict  not  of  the  year  or  of  the 
generation  only,  but  of  the  centuries. 

I  received  the  other  day  a  letter  from  an  accom 
plished  Jew  containing  a  paper  he  had  written  upon 
Emerson.  In  it  he  says,  "Emerson's  hold  on  the 


ADDRESS  OF  GEORGE  FRISBIE  HOAR        89 

minds  and  thoughts  of  men  is  truly  remarkable.  The 
circle  of  his  influence  grows  continually  wider  and 
wider.  He  appeals  to  the  most  various  and  diverse 
natures.  The  greatest  and  the  humblest  unite  in 
paying  him  homage.  He  fascinates  and  inspires  the 
hearts  and  souls  of  all.  The  men  and  women  of  two 
continents  come  to  his  writings  with  the  feeling  that 
a  new  world  has  been  discovered,  and  a  new  era 
opened  in  their  lives.  They  peruse  his  works  with  a 
delight  and  an  avidity  unaroused  and  unsatisfied  by 
any  other  author,  ancient  or  modern.  The  sanest, 
the  soberest,  the  most  'practical'  lawyers,  doctors, 
statesmen,  philosophers,  business  men  —  those  are 
among  the  unnumbered  hosts  of  those  throughout 
the  world  who  confess  themselves  the  eager,  devoted 
students  and  admirers  of  the  inspiring  Emerson. 
His  words  are  on  every  tongue.  His  sentences  illu 
mine  the  pages  and  adorn  the  speeches  of  the  great 
est  writers  and  orators." 

About  the  time  I  got  his  letter,  I  heard  from 
Bishop  Spaulding,  one  of  the  most  eminent  Catholic 
prelates  in  this  country,  who  has  lately  earned  public 
gratitude  by  an  important  service  to  public  order, 
that  Emerson  was  a  favorite  author  of  his  also.  This 
is  his  letter.  It  is  written  with  some  reserve,  as 
would  be  expected  from  one  to  whom  the  Church  is 
the  final  authority  on  all  such  questions.  I  am  told 
that  Bishop  Spaulding  is  called  by  the  men  of  his 
own  faith  "the  Catholic  Emerson,"  and  that  they 
deem  it  a  title  of  high  honor. 


90  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

ST.  MARY'S  CATHEDRAL, 
PEORIA,  ILL.,  April  14,  1903. 

MY  DEAR  SENATOR  HOAR  :  —  I  send  you  this 
brief  word  on  Emerson. 

Emerson  is  the  keenest,  the  most  receptive,  the 
most  thoughtful  mind  we  have  had;  and  whatever 
his  limitations,  his  failures  to  get  at  the  profoundest 
and  therefore  the  most  interesting  truth,  he  is,  and 
probably  will  continue  to  be  for  a  long  time,  the 
most  vital  force  in  American  literature.  His  influ 
ence  will  outlast  that  of  Carlyle  and  Ruskin.  His 
sanity,  his  modesty,  his  kindliness  are  greater ;  he  is 
more  hopeful  and  consequently  more  helpful  than 
they.  He  himself  says  we  judge  of  a  man's  wisdom 
by  his  hopefulness  ;  and  so  we  may  give  him  a  place 
among  the  world's  wise  men. 

Very  sincerely  yours, 
(Signed)  I.  L.  SPAULDING. 

Constantine  Pobedonostzeff,  since  the  death  of 
Alexander  II.,  has  been  the  power  behind  the  throne 
in  Russia.  At  the  first  meeting  of  Alexander  III. 
with  his  councillors,  he  told  the  Emperor  that  all 
liberal  measures  and  all  constitutions  were  a  de 
lusion  ;  that  no  constitution  was  fitted  to  Russia 
except  the  will  of  an  autocrat,  directed  by  his  own 
sense  of  responsibility  to  the  Almighty.  He  holds 
that  not  only  the  political  conduct,  but  the  religious 
faith  of  the  people  must  be  ordered  from  the  throne. 
Six  words  —  "  Obey  or  die ;  believe  or  die  "  —  are 


ADDRESS  OF  GEORGE  FRISBIE  HOAR        91 

all  the  constitution,  statute,  or  bill  of  rights  for 
an  empire  that  holds  one  sixth  of  the  people  of  the 
globe.  I  suppose  his  single  will,  influencing  that  of 
the  Emperor,  and  compelling  submission  from  the 
whole  people,  has  been,  for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a 
century,  the  most  powerful  single  will  on  the  face  of 
the  earth.  Yet  his  favorite  author  is  Emerson.  He 
has  enriched  Russian  literature  by  several  transla 
tions.  The  first  book  he  translated  was  Thomas  a 
Kempis's  Imitation  of  Christ,  and  the  next  was 
Emerson's  "  Works  and  Days." 

A  little  time  ago,  at  my  request,  he  sent  for  the 
Concord  Library  a  volume  of  his  translation  into 
Russian,  with  an  autograph  letter  and  his  own  por 
trait.  I  was  told  by  our  representative  at  St.  Peters 
burg  that  he  was  much  delighted  by  my  request 
which  led  him  to  send  them.  This  is  the  letter  with 
which  he  accompanied  the  book :  — 

SIR  :  —  It  is  true  that  having  been  from  my  youth 
a  constant  reader  and  admirer  of  Ralph  Waldo  Emer 
son,  I  one  day  undertook  the  translation  of  one  of 
his  essays,  "  Works  and  Days,"  taken  from  the  book, 
Society  and  Solitude.  The  work  had  for  me  a  par 
ticular  interest,  since  it  is  not  easy  to  express  in  a 
foreign  language  the  original  style  of  the  author. 
The  work,  published  in  1874,  was  reprinted  in  a  col 
lection  of  my  essays  which  appeared  in  1896,  in  Mos 
cow. 

The  Hon.  Andrew  White,  whose  stay  at  St.  Peters- 


92  THE   EMERSON  CENTENARY 

burg,  unhappily  too  short,  has  left  with  me  the  most 
agreeable  memories,  probably  had  this  work  in  view 
when  he  mentioned  my  fondness  for  Emerson  in  an 
article  in  the  Century  Magazine. 

If  my  book  should  answer  the  idea  of  Senator 
Hoar,  I  desire  to  send  it  to  you,  Monsieur,  with  the 
request  that  you  transmit  it  to  the  Library  at  Con 
cord  with  my  most  sincere  compliments. 

Accept,  Monsieur,  the  expression  of  my  most  re 
spectful  regards, 

(signed)  CONST.  POBEDONOSTZEFF. 

The  17th  of  May,  1898,  PETERSBURG. 
To  MONSIEUR  HERBERT  PIERCE. 

In  1833,  three  years  before  he  wrote  Nature,  Mrs. 
Ripley  said  of  him,  "  We  regard  him  still,  more  than 
ever,  as  the  apostle  of  the  Eternal  Reason." 

When  Dean  Stanley  was  in  this  country  he  took 
special  pains  to  inform  himself  of  the  history  and 
present  condition  of  our  religious  denominations. 
The  result  of  his  observation  was,  that  whatever 
might  be  the  sect  or  creed  of  the  clergymen,  they 
all  preached  Emerson. 

It  were  a  sorry  story  for  humanity  if  these  eternal 
verities  had  been  uttered  by  but  one  voice,  or  had 
waited  from  the  beginning  for  any  one  voice  to  utter 
them.  They  were  revealed  to  humanity  in  the  morn 
ing  of  creation.  The  revelation  will  continue  until 
time  shall  be  no  more.  What  is  best  in  humanity 
answered  in  the  beginning,  and  will  answer  to  the 


ADDRESS  OF  GEORGE  FRISBIE   HOAR        93 

end.  The  lesson  is  that  the  common  virtues,  the  com 
mon  hopes,  the  common  loves,  the  common  faiths  of 
mankind  are  the  foundations  on  which  the  Universe 
is  builded  and  are  the  things  that  shall  endure.  There 
is  a  diversity  of  gifts,  but  the  same  spirit.  There 
is  a  difference  of  language,  but  the  same  message. 
Emerson  says,  "he  is  base  —  that  is  the  one  base  thing 
of  the  universe  —  to  receive  benefits,  and  render 
none."  "  Noblesse  oblige"  says  the  chivalrous  pro 
verb  of  France.  "  To  whom  much  is  given,  of  him 
much  shall  be  required,"  say  the  Hebrew  Scriptures. 
Emerson  tells  us  that  beauty,  love,  and  truth  are 
one.  He  is  only  another  witness  that  faith,  and 
hope,  and  love  are  the  pillars  on  which  all  things 
rest,  and  that  they  abide.  Their  identity  the  Church 
has  striven  for  ages  to  express  in  the  great  doctrine 
of  the  Trinity.  Emerson  also  tells  us  that  they  are 
one  with  duty  and  with  joy.  What  is  that  but  to 
say  with  the  Assembly's  catechism  that  the  chief  end 
of  man  is  to  '*  glorify  God  and  to  enjoy  him  forever  "  ? 
Thank  God  if  it  be  true  that  these  are  the  eternal 
commonplaces,  and  that  the  humblest  individual  soul 
as  well  as  the  greatest,  by  virtue  of  its  birthright  as 
a  child  of  the  Infinite  Soul,  is  able  to  comprehend 
them  and  to  trust  them. 

But  above  all  these,  comprehending  them  all,  is 
his  perception  of  a  presence  that  I  hardly  know  how 
to  name,  and  that  it  sometimes  seems  he  did  not  like 
to  name.  I  asked  a  famous  preacher  what  it  was 
that  he  thought  Emerson  saw  more  clearly  than  other 


94  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

men.  He  said,  "It  is  the  Immanent  God."  What 
Emerson  would  have  called  it  if  he  had  given  it 
a  name,  I  do  not  know  —  God,  the  Over-Soul,  the 
Unknown,  the  Unity  manifesting  itself  in  beauty,  in 
power,  in  love,  in  joy,  in  duty,  existing  everywhere, 
speaking  in  every  age  through  some  prophet  of  its 
own,  —  it  spoke  to  our  age  its  high  commands 
through  the  lips  of  Emerson. 

The  exercises  closed  at  forty-five  minutes  after  five 
with  the  "  Seventy-eighth  Psalm,"  sung  by  the  congrega 
tion  to  the  tune  of  "  St.  Martins." 


THE  EVENING 


THE   EVENING 

THE  Social  Circle  met  in  the  evening  of  May  25, 
1903,  at  seven  o'clock,  in  the  vestry  of  the  First 
Parish.  It  had  been  voted  at  a  meeting  February 
3,  1903,  "  that  Miss  Ellen  T.  Emerson,  Mrs.  Wil 
liam  H.  Forbes  and  her  children,  and  the  family  of 
Edward  W.  Emerson  be  invited  ...  as  guests  of 
the  Circle."  Other  guests  were  invited  by  the  Com 
mittee  and  by  the  members  individually,  and  in  all 
one  hundred  and  fifty-two  were  present. 

At  half -past  seven  the  company  took  their  seats, 
the  guests  invited  by  the  vote  of  the  Circle  and  those 
invited  by  the  Committee  sitting  at  tables  upon  the 
raised  platform  at  the  end  of  the  room,  with  the 
Chairman  of  the  Committee. 

The  tables  were  decorated  with  lady's-slipper  and 
rhodora.  A  large  portrait  of  Mr.  Emerson,  framed 
in  branches  of  pink  hawthorn,  with  a  laurel  wreath 
at  its  base,  rested  against  the  head  table  in  front  of 
the  Chairman.  Branches  of  wild  cornel  bush,  wild 
cherry,  and  pink  hawthorn  filled  the  spaces  on  either 
side.  On  the  walls  hung  extracts  from  Mr.  Emerson's 
writings  framed  in  pine  boughs. 

On  the  dinner  card  was  the  "  Concord  Hymn,"  a 
colored  print  of  the  rhodora  blossom  with  four  lines 


98  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

from  "  The  Rhodora,"  and  the  following  tribute  to 
the  Social  Circle  written  by  Mr.  Emerson  to  a  friend 
December  17,  1844 :  - 

"  Much  the  best  society  I  have  ever  known  is  a 
club  in  Concord  called  the  Social  Circle,  consisting 
always  of  twenty-five  of  our  citizens,  doctor,  lawyer, 
farmer,  trader,  miller,  mechanic,  etc.,  solidest  of  men, 
who  yield  the  solidest  of  gossip.  Harvard  University 
is  a  wafer  compared  to  the  solid  land  which  my  friends 
represent." 

The  menu  was  as  follows  :  — 

Little  Necks 

Radishes  Olives 

Cream  of  Lettuce 

Toast  Sticks 

Turbans  of  Halibut  Lobster  Sauce 

Sliced  Cucumbers 

FiUet  of  Beef 
Potato  Croquettes  Green  Peas 

Asparagus,  Hollandaise 

Lettuce  and  Tomato  Salad,  Mayonnaise 

Frozen  Pudding  Strawberries 

Ice  Cream  and  Water  Ices 

Assorted  Cake 
Toasted  Crackers 

Roquefort  Cheese  Cream  Cheese 

Coffee 

During  the  dinner  there  was  music  by  an  orches 
tra,  and  then   the  Chairman,  the  Hon.  John  Shep 
ard  Keyes,  rose  and  said  :  — 


SPEECH   OF  CAROLINE  HAZARD  99 


REMARKS   OF  JOHN   SHEPARD   KEYES 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN,  Friends  and  Fellow  Mem 
bers  of  the  Social  Circle  :  —  To-night  is  Emerson's, 

THE  SEER. 

"  Alone  on  his  dim  heights  of  song  and  dreabi 
He  saw  the  dawn,  and  of  its  solace  told. 
We  on  his  brow  beheld  the  luminous  gleam 
And  listened  idly,  for  the  night  was  cold. 

"  Then  clouds  shut  out  the  view,  and  he  was  gone, 
And  though  the  way  is  dubious,  dark  the  night, 
And  though  our  dim  eyes  still  await  the  dawn, 
We  saw  a  face  that  once  beheld  the  light." 

This  is  the  third  time  —  and  the  third  time  never 
fails  —  that  the  ladies  have  attended  a  meeting  of 
the  Social  Circle.  The  first  occasion  was  at  the  Cen 
tennial  of  the  Circle,  the  second  was  on  a  summer 
evening  later,  and  to-night  we  have  a  majority  of 
the  fair  sex  with  us.  I  am  very  glad  to  be  able  to 
present  to  you  the  President  of  the  foremost  women's 
college,  the  daughter  of  an  especial  friend  of  Emer 
son  —  Miss  Hazard,  of  Wellesley  College. 


SPEECH   OF  CAROLINE   HAZARD 

MR.  CHAIRMAN,  and  Members  of  the  Social 
Circle :  — I  am  sure  it  is  a  great  honor  to  be  accounted 
a  member  of  this  Social  Circle  for  this  one  evening, 


100  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

an  honor  which  I  prize  very  highly.  I  must  say, 
when  your  Chairman  of  the  day  asked  me  to  come 
here  and  say  a  word,  I  feared  that  I  should  be  what 
Mr.  Emerson  would  call  "  an  unauthorized  talker." 
But  I  have  the  authority,  not  only  of  the  kind  invi 
tation  of  your  Chairman,  but  what  Mr.  Emerson 
would  recognize  as  the  true  authority  —  the  authority 
of  the  affection  and  gratitude  which  I  have  —  which 
all  women  must  have  —  for  the  work  which  Mr. 
Emerson  did  for  women  as  well  as  for  men.  It 
seems  to  me  that  that  splendid  message  of  the  dig 
nity  of  the  person  and  of  the  worth  of  personality 
which  he  preached  and  was  the  preeminent  example 
of  —  that  message  which  he  spoke  to  all  young  men 
and  young  women  —  comes  with  an  especial  force 
to  the  young  women  of  to-day.  When  we  think 
what  New  England  was  one  hundred  years  ago,  how 
it  was  truly  a  provincial  New  England,  —  a  New 
England  connected  with  the  mother  country  by 
the  closest  ties,  but  still  connected  only  with  the 
mother  country  and  not  with  the  great  world  cur 
rents,  —  we  also  think  of  what  Mr.  Emerson  did 
in  widening  that  connection,  in  making  the  con 
nection  with  the  whole  of  German  literature,  with 
the  revival  of  the  study  of  Dante,  and  with  all  of 
those  other  currents  of  literature  which  have  en 
riched  our  lives,  and  flow  from  his  preaching  and 
his  awakening. 

The  dignity  which  he  gave  to  the  individual  with 
his  call  to  awake  and  arise  —  this  splendid  call  to  per- 


SPEECH  OF  CAROLINE  HAZARD  101 

sonality  —  sounded  not  only  for  men  but  for  wo 
men.  "  The  whole  realm  of  history  and  biography," 
he  says,  "  is  to  increase  my  self-respect.  Then  I  ven 
ture  ;  then  I  will  also  essay  to  be."  And  it  was  to 
what  has  been  called  the  misrepresented  and  neglected 
sex  that  this  call  came  with  perhaps  especial  em 
phasis.  It  was  a  call  to  service.  There  were  many 
women  who  were  content  with  their  daily  round  of 
duty,  who  found  in  it  certainly  all  the  room  they 
could  ask  for  self-denial;  but  the  call  to  awaken 
to  their  own  personality,  to  a  conception  of  the 
worth  of  their  own  souls  and  the  right  that  they 
had  to  live  their  own  lives,  —  this  call  came  with 
an  especial  force,  as  it  seems  to  me,  to  the  women 
of  his  day.  We  hope  we  have  learned  the  lesson. 
There  were  some  who  carried  the  lesson  farther 
than  he  ever  intended,  perhaps,  but  that  call  was 
a  call  which  has  aroused  all  that  is  best  in  the 
women  of  our  land.  Mr.  Emerson  himself,  in  his 
own  beautiful  and  gracious  life,  in  his  association 
with  women,  recognized  what  the  place  of  women 
could  be  in  society  and  in  the  world.  They  had 
been  too  long  merely  pretty  playthings.  The  young 
girl  who  ruled  with  an  arbitrary  authority  for 
a  brief  hour,  and  then  was  consigned  to  house 
hold  cares,  too  often  as  a  housekeeper  rather  than 
as  a  companion  of  her  husband  —  all  that  Mr. 
Emerson  saw,  and  in  his  own  life  showed  how  it 
need  not  be.  The  value  of  his  women  friends,  the 
value  of  the  women  of  his  own  household,  he  cher- 


102  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

ished  and  in  every  way  increased  by  his  own  gra 
cious  and  loving  deference  and  the  dignity  of  his 
own  character.  And  so  his  splendid  message  of  the 
value  of  personality,  is  a  gift  for  us  women  to  be 
especially  grateful  for. 

And  with  that  gift  of  the  recognition  of  the  value 
of  the  person  came  his  recognition  of  the  day,  —  the 
present  moment,  this  hour,  —  whether  the  day  came 
"  in  bud-crowned  spring  "  or  whether  the  day  was  — 

"  Deformed  and  low, 
Short  and  bent  by  cold  and  snow." 

This  day,  this  present  moment,  as  he  said,  is  the  best 
day  that  ever  was.  He  said  that  every  day  was  a 
doomsday,  a  day  to  be  filled  with  work,  a  day  to  be 
filled  with  all  high  endeavor.  Who  of  us  does  not 
recall  with  a  thrill  of  joy  that  wonderful  poem  of  the 
"Daughters  of  Time,"  and  the  herbs  and  the  apples 
which  were  taken,  and  the  solemn  scorn  with  which 
he  saw  the  day  turn  and  depart  silent  ?  That  splendid 
message  comes  to  each  one  of  us.  And  with  the 
worth  of  the  person  and  the  value  of  the  day  came 
ever  the  sounding  note  of  joy,  —  joy  in  the  present, 
joy  in  life,  joy  in  the  world!  These  are  his  flowers, 
his  rhodora,  his  pine-trees,  his  beauty  in  these  Con 
cord  meadows  that  we  love  and  rejoice  in.  As  for 
the  deeper  sources  of  that  joy,  how  full  and  subtle 
the  intimations  are  as  they  gleam  on  his  pages.  "  Of 
that  Ineffable  Essence  which  we  call  Spirit,"  he  says, 
"  he  who  thinks  most  will  say  least."  He  could  say 


SPEECH  OF  CAROLINE   HAZARD  103 

with  Sir  Thomas  Browne,  "whoso  feels  not  the 
warm  gales  and  gentle  ventilation  of  this  Spirit, 
though  I  feel  his  pulse,  I  dare  not  say  he  lives,  for 
truly  without  this  there  is  to  me  no  heat  under  the 
tropic  nor  any  light,  though  I  dwelt  in  the  body  of 
the  sun." 

It  was  here  in  these  Concord  meadows  that  he 
taught  us  that  man  may  have  fellowship  with  God,  — 
"  that  man  in  the  bush  with  God  may  meet."  This 
was  the  source  of  his  joy  ;  this  was  the  strength  of 
his  personality ;  this  was  the  message  which  he 
preached  to  the  men  and  women  of  his  day,  that 
over  us 

"  Soars  the  eternal  sky 
Full  of  light  and  of  Deity." 

THE  CHAIRMAN  :  Emerson  had  very  little  to  do 
with  the  law,  but  he  once  got  sued.  A  couple  of 
scamps  sold  him  a  piece  of  land  for  his  Walden 
garden,  and  another  scamp  undertook  to  contest  the 
title,  and  the  philosopher  and  poet  had  to  become 
defendant  in  a  suit.  That  was  a  good  many  years 
ago,  and  the  lawyers  were  not  perhaps  then  as  bril 
liant  as  they  are  now.  If  he  had  only  had  such  a 
lawyer  as  we  have  here  to-night,  —  the  foremost 
member  of  the  Suffolk  Bar,  —  I  think  the  result 
would  have  been  very  different.  I  am  very  happy  to 
present  to  you  Moorfield  Storey,  Esq. 


104  THE  EMERSON   CENTENARY 


SPEECH   OF  MOORFIELD   STOREY 

MR.  PRESIDENT,  LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  :  —  I 
might  well  hesitate  in  this  company  of  his  old  friends 
and  neighbors  to  speak  of  Emerson,  for  what  can  I 
say  that  is  not  already  known  to  you  all  ?  Nor  is  it 
easier  to  say  the  fitting  word  after  all  that  you  have 
heard  to-day  and  all  that  many  of  you  heard  last 
night  from  lips  that  are  far  more  eloquent  than  mine. 
I  am  encouraged,  however,  by  the  reflection  that  the 
better  we  love  and  honor  a  man,  the  more  welcome 
is  appreciation,  even  from  strangers.  We  like  to 
know  that  his  quality  was  recognized  by  every  one. 
I  feel,  however,  a  sense  of  personal  obligation  to 
your  great  teacher  for  the  lesson  that  he  taught  me, 
and  your  Chairman's  invitation  came  as  a  challenge 
to  bear  my  testimony  in  recognition  of  my  debt 
which  I  could  not  well  refuse.  I  speak  to-night,  not 
as  a  contemporary  and  an  equal,  but  simply  as  a 
representative  of  the  younger  generation  which  his 
words  influenced  profound^.  And  I  am  glad  that  I 
have  an  opportunity,  at  this  late  hour  of  a  long  day 
spent  in  celebration,  to  speak  briefly.  I  am  satisfied 
that  you  will  thank  me  for  setting  those  who  may 
come  after  me  that  good  example. 

I  well  remember  the  evening,  early  in  my  college 
course,  when  I  first  met  Mr.  Emerson.  It  was  at  his 
own  table,  and  I  have  never  forgotten  the  grave  and 
gracious  simplicity  of  his  manner.  He  appeared 


SPEECH  OF  MOORFIELD  STOREY  105 

anxious  rather  to  draw  from  me  my  opinions  on  the 
questions  which  he  suggested  than  to  express  his 
own.  Then  and  always  he  seemed  to  ask  of  each 
newcomer,  "  What  have  you  to  tell  me  ?  "  His  atti 
tude  was  that  of  a  learner,  and  conveyed  a  subtle 
suggestion  that  the  ideas  of  his  visitor  might  be 
of  interest  to  him,  which  was  at  once  unexpected 
and  delightful.  A  friend  of  mine,  now  an  eminent 
philosopher,  has  confessed  to  me  that  he  was  so  be 
guiled  by  a  similar  appeal  to  himself  at  his  first 
interview  with  Mr.  Emerson  that  he  launched  into 
an  exposition  of  his  philosophic  creed  which,  upon 
reflection,  he  felt  must  have  been  more  interesting 
to  himself  than  it  was  to  his  hearer.  My  memory 
retains  the  look  and  the  gracious  manner  of  my 
host,  but,  mercifully  perhaps,  does  not  recall  my 
response. 

It  was  from  the  writings  of  Mr.  Emerson,  how 
ever,  that  during  our  college  life  many  of  us  learned 
our  most  valuable  lessons.  The  vital  thought  which 
he  thus  expresses,  —  "  Nature  arms  each  man  with 
some  faculty  which  enables  him  to  do  easily  some 
feat  impossible  to  any  other,  and  this  makes  him 
necessary  to  society,"  with  its  corollary  that  each  is 
bound  to  discover  what  his  faculty  is,  to  develop  it, 
and  to  use  it  for  the  benefit  of  mankind,  was  in  itself 
a  liberal  education.  It  meant  that  every  man,  able 
or  dull,  superior  or  inferior,  white,  brown,  or  black, 
had  his  right  to  his  chance  of  success,  and  it  followed 
that  no  other  man  had  a  right  to  take  that  chance 


106  THE   EMERSON  CENTENARY 

away  or  to  insist  that  Iris  fellow  man  should  be  remade 
according  to  his  ideas.  He  who  has  learned  to  be 
himself  and  to  act  upon  his  own  convictions,  regard 
less  of  personal  consequences,  "  safe  in  himself  as  in 
a  fate,"  and  who  does  this  naturally  and  simply,  not 
claiming  praise  for  being  what  he  is,  any  more  than 
the  plant  asks  praise  for  blooming,  has  grasped  the 
highest  conception  of  duty. 

Again,  I  learned  from  Mr.  Emerson  that  the  moral 
laws  of  the  universe  are  as  inexorable  as  the  physical 
laws  which  govern  the  solar  system,  that  they  "  ex 
ecute  themselves,"  that  "  in  the  soul  of  man  there  is 
a  justice  whose  retributions  are  instant  and  entire. 
He  who  does  a  good  deed  is  instantly  ennobled.  He 
who  does  a  mean  deed  is  by  the  action  itself  con 
tracted.  Thefts  never  enrich ;  alms  never  impover 
ish." 

He  who  really  believes  this  has  an  abiding  faith 
which  will  enable  him  to  view  without  impatience 
the  crooked  workings  of  the  world  and  to  wait  with 
serenity  for  the  inevitable  punishment  which  waits 
upon  wrong  and  the  certain  triumph  of  right,  con 
tent  to  do  his  part  while  he  may  and  indifferent  to 
the  insignificant  question  whether  he  lives  to  see  the 
punishment  and  the  triumph  or  not.  Such  seem  to 
me  in  part  Emerson's  faith  and  his  conception  of 
duty,  and  happy  he  whose  strength  enables  him  to 
make  them  his  own. 

Not  merely,  however,  in  the  supreme  moments  of 
life,  and  in  the  great  crises  of  human  affairs,  does 


SPEECH   OF  MOORFIELD  STOREY  107 

Emerson  help  us.  We  may  find  in  him  a  practical 
recognition  of  smaller  troubles,  and  he  teaches  us, 
if  not  to  avoid  them,  at  least  how  to  see  them  in 
their  proper  perspective.  When,  for  example,  we 
realize  a  long  cherished  ideal,  and  after  a  life  of 
labor  in  the  city,  acquire  a  farm,  we  feel  the  truth 
of  such  words  as  these  :  — 

"If  a  man  own  land,  the  land  owns  him.  .  .  . 
With  brow  bent,  with  firm  intent  the  pale  scholar 
leaves  his  desk  to  draw  a  freer  breath,  and  get  a 
juster  statement  of  his  thought  in  the  garden  walk. 
He  stoops  to  pull  up  a  purslain  or  a  dock  that  is 
choking  the  young  corn,  and  finds  there  are  two  ; 
close  behind  the  last  is  a  third ;  he  reaches  out  his 
hand  to  a  fourth  ;  behind  that  are  four  thousand  and 
one.  He  is  heated  and  untuned,  and  by  and  by  wakes 
up  from  his  hideous  dream  of  chickweed  and  redroot 
to  remember  his  morning  thought,  and  to  find  that 
with  his  adamantine  purposes  he  has  been  duped  by 
a  dandelion.  A  garden  is  like  those  pernicious  ma 
chineries  we  read  of  every  month  in  the  newspapers, 
which  catch  a  man's  coat,  skirt,  or  his  hand,  and 
draw  in  his  arm,  his  leg,  and  his  whole  body  to  irre 
sistible  destruction." 

There  is  a  profound  truth  in  this  statement  which 
every  man  who  has  tried  farming  recognizes.  If  I 
were  to  criticise  it  at  all,  I  should  say  that  he  under 
estimates  the  number  of  weeds. 

While  we  are  considering  the  relation  between 
tariff  and  treaty,  we  may  read  with  advantage  such 


108  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

passages  as  this :  "  Do  not  legislate.  Meddle,  and 
you  snap  the  sinews  with  your  sumptuary  laws.  Give 
no  bounties ;  make  equal  laws ;  secure  life  and 
property,  and  you  need  not  give  alms." 

Against  the  panegyrics  of  war,  which  seem  now  to 
be  the  fashion,  it  is  well  to  weigh  his  calm  sentences : 

"  It  is  the  ignorant  and  childish  part  of  mankind 
that  is  the  fighting  part.  Idle  and  vacant  minds  want 
excitement,  as  all  boys  kill  cats."  ...  In  certain 
regions  "  of  man,  boy,  or  beast,  the  only  trait  that 
much  interests  the  speaker  is  the  pugnacious.  And 
why?  Because  the  speaker  has  as  yet  no  other 
image  of  manly  activity  and  virtue,  none  of  endur 
ance,  none  of  perseverance,  none  of  character,  none 
of  attainment  of  truth.  Put  him  into  a  circle  of 
cultivated  men  where  the  conversation  broaches  the 
great  questions  that  besiege  the  human  reason,  and 
he  would  be  dumb  and  unhappy  as  an  Indian  in 
church.  ...  If  the  search  of  the  sublime  laws  of 
morals  and  the  sources  of  hope  and  trust  in  man 
and  not  in  books,  in  the  present  and  not  in  the  past, 
proceed  ;  if  the  rising  generation  can  be  provoked  to 
think  it  unworthy  to  nestle  into  every  abomination 
of  the  past,  and  shall  feel  the  generous  darings  of 
austerity  and  virtue,  then  war  has  a  short  day,  and 
human  blood  will  cease  to  flow." 

Citizens  of  Concord,  yours  is  a  great  inheritance. 
You  breathe  an  inspiring  air.  You  celebrate  at  fit 
ting  times  the  first  scenes  in  a  great  struggle  for 
human  freedom.  The  Mmuteman  marks  the  spot 


SPEECH  OF  MOORFIELD  STOREY  109 

where  the  shot  was  fired  which  startled  the  world. 
Are  its  echoes  silent  here  ?  Is  your  admiration  spent 
on  the  statue,  or  does  it  extend  to  the  cause  for 
which  the  Minuteman  died?  Are  the  sons  of  your 
fathers  indifferent  to  the  struggles  of  other  men  for 
freedom  ?  Are  they  content  to  stand  silently  by 
while  their  fellow  citizens  in  this  country  are  denied 
their  equal  rights  ?  Are  they  willing  to  help  deprive 
another  people  of  that  liberty  which  is  the  birth 
right  of  all  human  beings  ? 

You  meet  to-day  to  celebrate  the  birth  of  Emerson. 
Why?  Because  he  taught  great  truths,  or  uttered 
vain  aspirations  for  impossible  ideals  ?  Do  you  cele 
brate  dates  and  names  with  empty  forms,  or  do  you 
really  believe  in  the  truths  which  make  those  dates 
and  names  significant?  One  proof  of  living  faith  in 
those  truths,  of  willingness  to  maintain  them  no 
matter  at  what  personal  cost,  whether  found  in  vote 
or  speech  or  effective  action,  were  worth  a  hundred 
monuments  and  a  thousand  celebrations.  Is  it  the 
name  or  the  reality  which  calls  us  together  ?  Are  we 
trying  to  win  honor  for  ourselves  by  professing  to 
believe  in  the  plain  life  and  high  thought  which 
Emerson  taught,  or  do  we  really  believe?  This  is 
the  question  which  this  occasion  asks  us  all,  and 
only  the  conduct  of  our  lives  can  answer  it. 

THE  CHAIRMAN  :  —  Your  committee  thought,  not 
withstanding  the  smallness  of  this  room  and  the 
actual  filling  of  it  which  you  would  make,  that  it 


110  THE  EMERSON   CENTENARY 

might  be  agreeable  to  invite  —  knowing  they  could 
not  come  —  some  of  the  distinguished  foreigners 
who  have  so  much  admiration  for  Mr.  Emerson  and 
who  were  so  friendly  to  him  on  his  visit  abroad.  I 
have  before  me  quite  a  package  of  the  letters  that 
they  have  sent  in  answer,  all  of  them  fortunately  — 
inasmuch  as  we  have  but  one  vacant  seat  in  the 
room  —  declining  to  come,  and  quite  a  number  of 
them  expressing  a  very  high  and  exalted  opinion 
both  of  the  senders  who  do  them  this  honor  of  invit 
ing  them,  and  of  Mr.  Emerson  whom  we  are  trying 
in  this  way  to  honor.  However,  I  am  not  going  to 
read  these  letters  at  this  time.  They  will  all  be  care 
fully  preserved  for  the  use  and  good  reading  of  the 
Social  Circle  at  some  future  time.1  The  vacant  seat 
at  this  table  was  to  have  been  occupied  by  a  profes 
sor  of  Glasgow  University,  which,  as  you  know,  gave 
Mr.  Emerson  a  very  large  vote  for  the  position  — 
the  highest  in  the  college  —  of  Lord  Provost ;  and 
although  it  did  not  elect  him,  fortunately  for  us,  — 
as  it  might  have  taken  him  away  more  than  we  would 
have  been  willing,  —  he  said  of  it  that  the  voices  of 
those  young  men  were  his  fairest  laurels.  This  gen 
tleman,  Professor  Smith,  was  sent  over  here  by  the 
University  to  bear  his  tribute  at  this  or  some  other 
of  the  celebrations  in  honor  of  Mr.  Emerson ;  but  he 
is  unfortunately  in  a  hospital  in  Toledo,  Ohio,  instead 
of  being  here.  But  he  has  sent  to  Mr.  Hoar  his 
tribute,  and  Mr.  Hoar  will  oblige  me  by  reading  it. 
1  See  Appendix,  page  131. 


LETTER  READ  BY  SAMUEL  HOAR         111 

SAMUEL  HOAR  :  —  Mr.  Chairman,  I  received  this 
to-day  just  before  the  afternoon  celebration  began. 
The  length  of  that  celebration  prevented  my  present 
ing  it  to  the  audience  then. 

Mr.  Hoar  then  read  the  following 

MEMORIAL.1 

We,  a  few  of  the  Scottish  and  English  admirers 
of  the  late  R.  W.  Emerson,  and  of  his  writings, 
desire  to  associate  ourselves  with  those  who  are  cele 
brating  in  the  United  States  his  Centenary.  We  re 
joice  in  the  knowledge  that  his  ethical  teaching  has 
so  largely  influenced  to  high  and  worthy  aims  the 
great  nation  to  which  he  belonged,  and  we  desire  to 
testify  how  powerfully  his  teaching  has  affected 
for  good  very  many  in  our  own  country.  Many 
of  his  writings  have  been  a  life-long  inspiration  to 
people  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  nation  all  over  the  world. 

Rt.  Hon.  JAMES  BRYCE,  D.  C.  L.,  M.  P. 

Principal  DONALDSON,  of  St.  Andrews  University. 
Principal  MARSHALL  LANG,  Aberdeen  University. 
Principal  STORY,  Glasgow  University. 
Rev.  JOHN  WATSON,  D.  D.,  of  Liverpool  (Ian  Maclaren). 
Rev.  JOHN  KELMAN,  M.  A.,  Edinburgh. 
Rev.  JAMES  MOFFAT,  Dundonald,  Ayrshire. 
Professor  WALTER  RALEIGH,  Glasgow  University. 
Rev.  HUGH  BLACK,  M.  A.,  Edinburgh. 
Mrs.  MARY  DREW  (ne'e  Gladstone). 

1  See  Appendix,  page  131. 


112  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

Miss  AGNES  C.  MAITLAND,  Somerville  College,  Oxford. 
Professor  HENRY  GOUDY,  D.  C.  L.,  Oxford. 
Professor  J.  G.  McKENDRiCK,  Glasgow  University. 
Professor  S.  ALEXANDER,  Owen's  College,  Manchester. 
Professor  GEORGE  SAINTSBURY,  Edinburgh  University. 
Professor  GEORGE  ADAM  SMITH,  Glasgow. 
PATRICK  W.  CAMPBELL,  W.  S.,  Edinburgh. 
Sir  LESLIE  STEPHEN. 

Sir  WILLIAM  TURNER,  Edinburgh  University. 
Professor  MARCUS  DODS,  Edinburgh. 
Professor  LATTA,  University,  Glasgow. 
Professor  A.  V.  DICEY,  All  Souls,  Oxford. 
Professor   ALEXANDER   LAWSON,  University,  St.  An 
drews. 

Professor  C.  H.  HERFORD,  Manchester. 
Professor  A.  S.  PRINGLE  PATTISON. 
EDMUND  GOSSE,  LL.  D.,  London. 

THE  CHAIRMAN; — Kudyard  Kipling  declined  his 
invitation,  but  we  have  his  "  Recessional "  here  to 
night  and  we  hope  to  have  the  pleasure  of  hearing 
Mr.  Parker  sing  it. 

Kipling's  "  Recessional "  was  sung  by  Mr.  George 
J.  Parker,  accompanied  on  the  piano  by  Mrs. 
Charles  Edward  Brown. 

THE  CHAIRMAN  :  —  The  gentleman  who  has  per 
haps  honored  the  memory  of  Emerson  by  the  grandest 
and  most  lasting  memorial,  and  who  proposed  the 
plan  for  the  Emerson  Hall  of  Philosophy  at  Cam- 


SPEECH  OF  HUGO  MUNSTERBERG          113 

bridge,  at  an  expense  of  $150,000,  which  sum  he  has 
already  raised,  is  with  us  to-night,  and  we  desire  to 
thank  him  in  this  manner  for  the  great  service  he 
has  done  for  the  memory  of  Emerson.  I  have  plea 
sure  in  introducing  to  you  Professor  Miinsterberg,  of 
Harvard  University. 


SPEECH  OF  HUGO  MUNSTERBERG 

MR.  CHAIRMAN,  LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  :  —  The 
overwhelming  kindness  of  your  generous  words, 
Mr.  Chairman,  adds  much  to  the  embarrassment  with 
which  I  stand  before  you.  I  am  deeply  embarrassed 
indeed,  —  how  can  I,  a  foreigner,  an  outsider,  rise  at 
this  occasion  to  speak  to  a  circle  of  women  and  men, 
inspired  from  childhood  by  the  atmosphere  of  Emer 
son's  New  England  ?  I  have  been  brought  up  near 
the  Baltic  Sea,  and  in  my  childhood  the  waves  of 
the  ocean  seldom  brought  greetings  from  these  New 
England  shores  to  the  shores  of  Germany.  And  yet 
my  youth  was  not  untouched  by  Emerson's  genius. 
I  am  glad  to  mention  this  Emersonian  influence 
abroad,  because  in  the  rich  chord  of  the  joyful  enthu 
siasm  of  this  day  I  missed  only  one  overtone :  a  tone 
bringing  out  the  grateful  appreciation  which  Emer 
son  found  in  the  not-English  speaking  foreign  coun 
tries.  As  far  as  I  remember,  I  had  only  three  Amer 
ican  books,  in  German  translation,  in  my  little 
schoolday  library.  At  ten  I  got  a  boys'  edition  of 
Cooper's  Leather  stocking;  at  twelve  I  enjoyed 


114  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

Longfellow's  poems,  but  at  fourteen  I  had  Emerson's 
Essays.  And  they  accompanied  me  through  my  stu 
dent  days ;  I  read  and  reread  them,  and  he  became 
thus  the  star  to  which  I  hitched  my  little  wagon 
when  it  was  to  carry  me  to  the  new  world  from  the 
fatherland.  This  was  not  without  effect  on  my  own 
American  experiences.  Emerson's  work  had  so  often 
represented  to  me  the  spirit  of  the  new  world  which 
I  entered  that  my  mental  eye  became  so  sensitive  as 
to  recognize  the  Emersonian  lines  and  curves  and 
forms  everywhere  in  the  background  of  American 
life.  Most  Europeans,  and  especially  Germans,  who 
come  over,  see  everywhere  the  features  of  commer 
cialism  and  practical  utilitarianism.  I  was  impressed 
by  the  idealism  of  this  young,  healthful  community, 
and  in  the  first  essay  which  I  published  on  America, 
in  a  German  paper,  only  a  few  months  after  my  first 
visit,  I  wrote  with  most  sincere  conviction :  "If 
you  really  want  to  understand  the  deepest  energies 
of  this  glorious  country,  do  not  consult  the  editorials 
of  the  yellow  press  of  New  York,  but  read  the 
golden  books  of  the  wise  man  of  Concord." 

But,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  feel  that  I  have  no  right  to 
speak  here  as  a  German,  since  you  have  assured  us 
that  the  foreign  scholars  have  been  invited  for  to 
night,  with  the  understanding  that  they  are  not 
allowed  to  come  —  if  a  cover  has  been  laid  for  me, 
nevertheless,  I  take  it  that  I  was  expected  not  to 
forget  that  I  am  here  as  the  representative  of  the 
Harvard  Philosophy  Department.  But,  Mr.  Chair- 


SPEECH  OF  HUGO  MUNSTERBERG          115 

man,  the  Philosophy  Department  of  Harvard  has 
not  to  report  any  new  facts  to-night.  The  Emerson 
story  is  very  simple,  very  short,  and  completely  known 
to  you.  "We  saw  a  year  ago  that  the  time  had  come 
to  place  an  Emerson  Hall  for  Philosophy  on  the 
Harvard  Yard,  and  that  it  was  necessary  for  that 
purpose  to  collect  1150,000  before  the  25th  of  May, 
1903  ;  we  began  thus  to  collect,  and  when  we  counted 
the  contents  of  our  purse,  on  the  23d  of  May,  1903, 
we  found  there  $ 150,250.  That  is  the  whole  simple 
story  indeed,  and  yet  some  connotations  to  it  may 
be  in  order,  and  I  am  most  happy  to  make  them 
in  this  company. 

First,  do  not  misunderstand  the  report  of  our 
treasurer ;  the  sum  I  mentioned  was  meant  from  the 
beginning  merely  as  a  fund  sufficient  to  secure  a 
building, —  not  at  all  sufficient  to  secure  the  building 
for  which  we  were  hoping  from  the  start.  We  want 
a  spacious,  noble,  monumental  hall  —  the  architec 
tural  plans  are  drawn.  To  build  it  as  the  plans  sug 
gest  it  we  need  $100,000  more ;  and  while  we 
highly  appreciate  any  small  gifts  toward  this  addi 
tional  sum  we  are  firmly  determined  not  to  reject 
even  the  largest  contributions. 

But  all  this  refers  to  the  externals,  to  the  news 
paper  side  of  our  memorial  work ;  let  me  speak  in 
this  narrower  circle  of  some  more  internal  points. 
Seen  from  such  an  exoteric  point  of  view,  it  may 
look  as  though  we  Harvard  philosophers  had  said 
through  all  the  year :  "  Happy  public,  you  are  fortu- 


116  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

nate  in  being  allowed  to  build  a  fine  building  for  our 
splendid  philosophy  instruction,  and  now  that  the 
checks  are  written,  the  public  may  kindly  remove 
itself  and  the  students  may  fill  their  fountain  pens 
to  write  down  in  the  new  building  our  glorious  effu 
sion  of  wisdom."  Well,  over  there  in  Cambridge, 
we  must  impose  on  the  freshmen  and  sophomores, 
but  here  let  me  say  at  once,  we  know  exactly  that 
the  generous  contributions  of  the  community  were 
not  given  to  us  but  to  Emerson.  And  if  we  ever 
forgot  it,  our  benefactors  reminded  us  of  it.  I  asked, 
for  instance,  the  help  of  Andrew  Carnegie,  and  he 
gave  generously,  but  when  I  replied  that  there  would 
be  rejoicing  in  Harvard  that  at  last  he  had  given  to 
Harvard  University,  — I  saw  in  the  far  background 
the  big  Harvard  Library  building  we  need  so  badly, — 
he  left  me  not  the  slightest  doubt  that  his  pledge 
was  for  the  Emerson  Memorial,  but  not  for  Harvard 
as  Harvard.  Yes,  it  is  thoroughly  an  Emerson  build 
ing,  a  late  expression  of  Harvard's  gratitude  for  her 
greatest  son. 

But  we  know  also  that  the  value  of  this  memorial 
gift  lies  not  in  its  walls  and  roof,  but  in  the  kind  of 
work  which  will  develop  within  those  walls.  It  will 
be  a  true  Emerson  memorial  only  if  the  words  and 
work  in  that  hall  become  help  and  guidance,  wisdom 
and  inspiration  for  new  and  new  generations  of  Har 
vard  men.  There  would  be  no  hope  of  such  influence 
if  we  instructors  really  entered  into  it  with  an  air 
of  self-satisfaction  and  self-complacency.  Let  me 


SPEECH  OF  HUGO  MUNSTERBERG         117 

assure  you  that  it  is  exactly  the  opposite  feeling  with 
which  we  look  into  the  future,  and  this  conviction 
that  we  must  fulfil  our  duty  better,  much  better, 
than  heretofore,  is  common  to  all  of  us  in  the  whole 
large  Department  of  Philosophy.  A  lucky  chance 
brought  to  me  this  morning,  when  I  left  for  Concord, 
a  letter  from  our  colleague,  Professor  Royce,  who  is 
spending  his  sabbatical  year  in  the  country  of  his 
childhood,  in  California.  He  finds  the  fit  word  bet 
ter  than  I  could  hope  to  do ;  let  me  read  from  his 
letter.  I  had  written  to  him  that  the  success  seems 
near,  and  he  replies  :  — 

"  I  feel  very  deeply  how  great  are  the  responsi 
bilities  which  the  new  gift  places  upon  the  shoulders 
of  each  teacher  of  the  department  which  is  thus 
endowed.  I  do  not  know  how  much  I  shall  be  able 
to  do  to  live  up  to  these  new  responsibilities.  I  only 
know  that  the  news  of  the  success  of  the  Emerson 
Hall  endowment  fills  me  with  a  desire  not  only  to 
improve  here  and  there,  but  quite  to  make  over 
afresh,  and  to  change  throughout  for  the  better,  my 
methods  of  work  as  a  teacher  of  philosophy;  and 
with  a  determination  to  devote  myself  as  never  be 
fore  to  the  task  of  offering  to  philosophy  and  to 
Harvard  my  best  services.  That  the  founding  of  this 
new  building  may  mean  the  beginning  of  a  new  life 
for  philosophical  study  in  our  country,  and  the  dawn 
ing  of  a  new  day  for  the  interests  of  higher  thought 
in  our  national  affairs,  is  the  earnest  wish  of  your 
absent  colleague." 


118  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

This  is  the  feeling  of  our  common  department's 
soul.  We  shall  not  enter  the  new  Philosophy  Hall 
with  the  feeling  that  we  can  sit  there  on  our  laurels, 
but  with  the  firm  promise  that  we  will  live  up  to  the 
duties  which  the  single  word  above  its  door  demands 
from  us.  We  all  are  united  by  the  ideal  to  make 
our  work  in  Emerson  Hall  worthy  of  the  name  that 
honors  it. 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  see  from  your  pretty  menu-card 
that  Emerson  once  said,  "  Harvard  University  is 
thin  like  a  wafer  compared  with  the  solid  land  of 
our  Social  Circle  in  Concord.'*  That  was  sixty  years 
ago,  and  there  has  not  been  much  change  since  that 
time,  indeed.  But  now  the  change  will  come,  believe 
us.  Emerson  Hall  in  Harvard  University  will  be 
built  on  solid  land,  too,  on  the  solid  land  of  our  best 
will  and  effort,  and  we  will  work  that  it  may  prove 
perhaps  even  not  less  solid  than  the  Social  Circle, — 
solid  land  on  which  to  stand  to-night  gave  me  the 
greatest  possible  pleasure. 

THE  CHAIRMAN  :  —  Dr.  Emerson  needs  no  intro 
duction  from  me  to  you.  He  will  occupy  the  few 
remaining  moments  before  the  time  to  leave  for 
the  train,  and  the  exercises  will  then  close  with 
singing  the  "Battle  Hymn"  to  the  tune  of  "Old 
Hundred." 


SPEECH   OF  EDWARD  WALDO  EMERSON    119 


SPEECH   OF  EDWARD  WALDO  EMERSON 

MR.  CHAIRMAN,  My  Honored  Friend,  —  My 
Friends  and  Neighbors:  —  The  Social  Circle,  as 
stated  in  its  book  of  chronicles,  was  not  merely 
founded  * 4  for  the  diffusion  of  useful  communica 
tions  "  by  the  twenty -five  members  who  composed  it, 

—  some  of  which  might  be  shared  by  their  wives  and 
some  not,  —  but  for  the  promotion  of  the  social  affec 
tions,  that  they  should  not  die.    I  am  glad  to  see 
how  liberally  the  Circle  has  gone  to  work  to  promote 
them  by  such  a  thoroughly  social  and  affectionate 
and  catholic  occasion  as  this. 

Now,  it  makes  me  smile  a  little  when,  after  the 
exercises  that  I  have  had  the  privilege  of  attending 
here  and  elsewhere,  I  think  of  a  remark  that  I  have 
so  often  heard  my  father  make.  My  mother  was 
constantly  remembering  that  "Ten  years  ago  to-day 
such  a  thing  occurred,"  and  other  members  of  the 
family  would  remember  other  anniversaries.  When 
at  table  such  remarks  were  made,  my  father  would 
often  laugh  and  say,  "Oh,  it  is  always  a  hundred 
years  from  something."  But  he  was  so  good  a  towns 
man  and  he  had  such  an  affectionate  regard  for  his 
neighbors  —  and  he  construed  that  term  very  largely 

—  that  if  we  can  conceive  of  him  being  present  and 
receiving  such  a  tribute  as  has  been  given  to  him 
to-day,  it  is  very  clear  how  it  would  have  affected 
him.    Some  of  you  are  too  young  —  or  too  young 


120  THE  EMERSON   CENTENARY 

Concordians  —  to  remember  the  burning  of  his  house 
as  far  as  the  heroic  mustering  of  his  friends  would 
allow  it  to  be  burned,  for  they,  some  of  whom  I  see 
here  to-night,  at  the  risk  of  their  lives,  prevented  the 
entire  destruction  and  saved  all  his  effects.  Well, 
his  friends  had  sent  him  abroad  to  restore  his  health, 
and  he  was  coming  home,  and  word  had  gone  out 
that  the  steamer  had  come  in,  and  the  engineer  was 
instructed  to  toot  the  whistle  as  the  train  came  down 
the  grade  from  Walden  Woods  if  Mr.  Emerson  was 
on  board,  and  the  bells  were  ringing  and  the  people 
gathered  at  the  depot.  Mr.  Emerson  was  carried 
homeward  delighted,  under  a  triumphal  arch,  sur 
rounded  by  his  neighbors,  with  the  school-children 
marching  alongside,  but  he  supposed  in  good  faith 
that  all  this  was  a  tribute  to  my  sister  Ellen.  He 
did  not  realize  that  it  was  for  him.  But  when  after 
passing  beneath  a  triumphal  arch,  he  came  to  his 
own  door,  and  found  the  house  just  as  he  had  left 
it,  with  hardly  a  trace  of  the  injury,  and  his  study 
just  as  it  was  before,  with  all  the  books  there,  and 
then  saw  the  waiting  throng  of  friends  and  neigh 
bors  around  his  gate,  it  suddenly  came  over  him 
what  it  meant.  He  sped  down  the  marble  walk  to 
the  gate,  —  I  cannot  say  all  that  he  said;  it  was  but 
a  few  words,  for  the  meaning  of  it  all  swept  over 
him.  He  began,  "My  friends  and  neighbors!  lam 
not  wood  nor  stone."  He  articulated  but  a  few 
words,  but  he  made  his  meaning  clear.  And  so  we, 
his  family,  feel  to-day. 


SPEECH  OF  EDWARD   WALDO   EMERSON    121 

Now,  what  was  the  reason,  though  not  born  in 
Concord,  though  a  scholar  living  apart,  though  fol 
lowing  his  own  lines  regardless  of  other  people's 
ideas,  has  caused  him  to  be  considered,  first,  as 
crazy,  and  then  as  atheistic,  and  then  the  charge 
resolved  itself  into  pantheism,  and  then  it  became 
merely  mysticism,  and  finally  he  was  accepted,  — 
what  was  the  reason  that  he  was  accepted?  It  was 
for  two  reasons.  In  the  first  place,  he  never  fought. 
He  simply  announced  his  message.  He  was  a  her 
ald;  he  announced  the  word  that  was  given  to  him, 
and  it  was  not  his  part  to  defend  it.  The  truth,  he 
believed,  would  defend  itself.  There  was  no  pugnac 
ity  in  him.  The  truth  needed  no  defence.  He  sim 
ply  left  it  to  work  its  own  way,  and  so  he  aroused 
no  opposition.  In  the  second  place,  while  finding 
good  in  all  things,  he  saw  even  in  the  fierce  and 
ferocious  wars  of  the  Middle  Ages  and  the  institu 
tions  of  feudalism,  this  benefit,  that  it  was  a  proof 
of  the  gentleman  that  he  carried  his  life  in  his  hands 
and  was  ready  to  answer  for  his  word  with  his  life, 
—  it  was  exactly  that  which  Mr.  Emerson  did :  he 
answered  for  his  words  with  his  life.  Many  persons 
were  not  reading  his  words  in  those  days;  only  a 
few  were;  but  his  life  was  before  the  people,  and 
those  who  had  read  his  words  also  came  to  see  his 
life,  and  finding  his  life  humble  and  serene  and 
sweet  and  expectant  and  hopeful,  they  became  his 
friends.  He  made  friends  everywhere  as  the  sun  in 
heaven  makes  friends. 


122  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

But  while  he  was  an  idealist,  this  story  is  told  of 
him  by  a  friend,  that  when  the  philosophers  who 
were  visiting  him  were  discoursing  in  his  study,  a 
load  of  wood  arrived  for  him  and  he  said  to  them, 
"  Excuse  me,  for  a  moment  ;  we  have  to  attend  to 
these  things  just  as  if  they  were  real."  And  so 
when  his  duty  to  his  town  and  his  country  and  his 
globe  came  up,  he  attended  to  those  duties  as  if 
they  were  real.  He  went  to  town  meeting,  although 
his  neighbor  on  the  hill  advised  him  not  to  go  be 
cause  "  what  you  do  with  the  ballot  is  no  use  —  it 
won't  stay  so;  but  what  you  do  with  the  gun  stays 
done."  But  he  went  to  town  meeting,  and  I  want 
to  recall  one  word  that  he  said.  It  is  a  good  politi 
cal  tract,  and  very  short.  He  said,  "  What  business 
have  you  to  stay  away  from  the  polls  because  you 
are  paired  off  with  a  man  who  means  to  vote 
wrong?  How  shall  you,  who  mean  to  vote  right, 
be  excused  from  staying  away?  Suppose  the  three 
hundred  Spartans  at  Thermopylae  had  paired  off 
with  an  equal  number  of  Persians.  Would  it  have 
been  the  same  to  history?  Would  it  have  been 
the  same  to  Greece?  Would  it  have  been  the  same 
to  the  world? "  This  morning,  in  the  singing  of 
the  Ode  at  the  town  hall,  I  missed  two  verses. 
The  time  was  short  and  they  were  therefore  left  out, 
but  they  were  lasting  truths  that  he  announced  —  as 
true  from  1898  to  1903  and  onward  as  in  the  dark 
days  of  the  Civil  War.  These  were  the  omitted 
verses : — 


SPEECH  OF  EDWARD   WALDO  EMERSON    123 

"  United  States  !      The  ages  plead,  — 
Present  and  past  in  umler-song, — 
Go  put  your  creed  into  your  deed, 
Nor  speak  with  double  tongue. 

"  For  sea  and  land  don't  understand, 

Nor  skies  without  a  frown 
See  rights  for  which  the  one  hand  fights 
By  the  other  cloven  down." 

Now,  to  turn  to  a  more  entertaining  aspect  of  our 
subject,  perhaps,  I  wish  to  tell  two  stories  which 
were  connected  with  the  little  book  I  wrote  about 
my  father,  but  which  came  to  me  too  late  to  go  into 
the  book.  I  will  try  to  make  them  brief,  but  they 
seem  to  me  very  delightful.  Our  good  neighbor, 
Mr.  Bowers,  whom  many  of  you  remember,  who 
lived  on  Hey  wood  Street  by  the  brook,  —  a  patriot 
who  always  spoke  so  well  in  the  temperance  meet 
ings  and  the  Anti-slavery  and  Kansas  meetings  that 
my  father,  very  humble  about  his  own  eloquence, 
always  came  home  saying,  "Bowers  spoke  admir 
ably;  "  —  when  the  war  came  shouldered  his  gun  as 
a  private  in  the  three  months'  men,  and  afterwards 
served  as  captain  throughout  the  war  with  credit. 
From  various  troubles,  owing  to  the  war,  Mr. 
Bowers's  reason  was  affected,  and  he  was  confined 
in  Danvers  Asylum  willingly.  But  he  did  not  for 
get  his  principles,  and  instantly  set  himself  to  make 
the  life  of  the  inmates  as  tolerable  as  he  could.  He 
would  write  to  my  sister  and  myself,  asking  if  we 
would  please  send  him  some  books,  — "Why,  the 


124  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

people  here  haven't  any  books  to  read,  and  they 
would  be  a  great  comfort  to  them."  When  my  me 
morial  volume  about  my  father  came  out,  he  wrote 
me  and  said,  "I  have  no  money,  but  will  you  send 
me  your  book?"  and  then  wrote  me  such  a  letter 
that  I  said,  "No  price  that  has  as  yet  been  paid  for 
that  book  has  even  approached  the  price  you  have 
paid  for  it."  Mr.  Bowers  was  a  nephew  of  George 
Minott,  who  lived  on  the  hill  opposite  my  father's. 
Mr.  Bowers  was  one  day  talking  with  his  uncle,  — 
an  old  agriculturalist  and  pot-hunter,  who  had  only 
been  to  Boston  once,  when  he  marched  there  in 
1812  with  his  gun  and  then  he  got  so  homesick 
for  Concord  that  he  promptly  deserted ;  —  as  they 
stood  there  talking  together,  my  father  came  out 
from  his  study  with  his  tall  hat  on  and  his  satchel 
in  hand,  going  to  Boston  for  the  day.  He  paused 
as  he  reached  the  middle  of  that  dusty  diagonal 
leading  to  the  upper  sidewalk,  as  you  know,  and 
was  apparently  lost  in  meditation.  They  supposed 
he  was  meditating  some  profound  problem.  Un 
doubtedly,  the  problem  was  whether  or  no  he  had 
done  with  a  certain  book  which  should  be  carried 
back  to  the  Athenaeum.  But  Mr.  Minott  said  to 
Mr.  Bowers,  "Charley,  that  man  ain't  like  other 
men.  He  is  like  Enoch.  He  walks  with  God  and 
talks  with  his  angels."  I  am  sometimes  tempted  to 
ask  how  many  graduates  of  Harvard  College  would 
know  who  Enoch  was.1 

1  Mr.  Samuel  Hoar,  on  behalf  of  the  University,  officially 


SPEECH   OF   EDWARD   WALDO   EMERSON    125 

The  other  story  was  this.  Mr.  Bowers  was  tem 
porarily  curator  of  the  Lyceum.  The  minister  of  a 
neighboring  town,  who  had  a  sonorous  voice  which 
he,  with  others,  enjoyed,  and  a  florid  style  of  rheto 
ric,  was  to  have  lectured,  but  was  unexpectedly  de 
tained.  Mr.  Bowers  came  down  to  ask  Mr.  Emerson 
if  he  would  read  something.  Mr.  Emerson  said: 
"Yes;  I  could  read  you  something;  but  will  the 
people  who  are  assembled  to  hear  the  sound  of  the 
trumpet  be  content  with  a  penny  whistle  ?  " 

Mr.  Emerson's  love  for  his  townsfolk,  especially 
for  the  boys  and  girls,  was  very  great.  How  little 
conscious  was  the  boy,  as  he  passed  the  gate,  riding 
a  horse  to  be  shod,  or  the  girls  walking  to  school,  — 
how  little  conscious  of  the  admiration  that  they 
excited  in  him  and  his  pleasure  in  watching  them 
pass.  He  had  a  little  book  which  he  called  Auto 
among  his  manuscripts  in  which  he  noted  a  few 
points  especially  characteristic  of  himself.  One 
thing  he  wrote  was,  "  I  have  never  seen  a  man  that 
could  not  teach  me  something.  I  always  felt  that 
in  some  point  he  was  my  master."  It  was  so  with 
women  and  with  children.  We  had  once  a  friend, 
a  charming  young  girl,  visiting  us  at  our  house. 
One  morning,  through  some  family  exigency,  she 
was  alone  at  breakfast  with  Mr.  Emerson  and 
poured  out  his  cup  of  coffee  for  him.  She  felt  very 
much  abashed.  She  felt  unable  to  discourse  on 

informs  me  that  Harvard  students  are  familiar  with  Enoch 
because  he  was  translated  some  time  ago. 


126  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 

philosophy,  but  she  said  it  suddenly  came  over  her, 
"Mr.  Emerson  could  not  fix  over  an  old  dress,  he 
could  not  do  plain  sewing  the  way  I  can  do  it,  to 
save  his  life."  Then  she  felt  better,  and  they  got 
on  together  beautifully  after  that.  I  wish  she  had 
said  it  to  him ;  it  would  have  delighted  him.  When 
1  was  in  college  many  persons  used  to  come  to  ask 
Mr.  Emerson  questions,  —  young  people  often  no 
older  than  I.  But  you  know  how  it  is;  boys  are  not 
apt  to  ask  their  fathers  questions.  They  ask  some 
other  person's  father.  I  was  surprised  to  see  how 
the  boys  who  came  there  did  so.  I  seldom  asked  a 
very  serious  question  of  him,  but  I  recall  one 
answer  with  pleasure.  It  was  about  Immortality. 
I  ventured  to  ask  what  he  thought.  This  was  the 
answer :  —  "I  think  we  may  be  sure  that,  whatever 
may  come  after  death,  no  one  will  be  disappointed." 
That  seemed  to  cover  all  our  concern  about  the 
future. 

My  father's  delight  in  his  farm  and  what  he  found 
in  it  —  except  the  weeds  —  has  already  been  men 
tioned.  I  like  to  close  with  this  incident,  because, 
you  know,  in  the  pictures  of  the  good  men  and 
women  who  have  been  canonized,  they  are  repre 
sented  with  some  emblem,  —  a  book  or  a  wheel  or 
a  cross  or  a  sword,  as  an  attribute.  David  Scott, 
the  Edinburgh  painter,  has  this  one  merit  in  that 
wooden  picture  that  he  made  of  my  father,  in  that 
he  recognized  that  my  father  stood  for  Hope,  and  he 
put  the  rainbow  in  the  background  —  the  symbol  of 


SPEECH  OF  EDWARD  WALDO  EMERSON    127 

Lope.    Mr.    Emerson,   finding   everything   good   in 
Concord,  and  near  at  hand  in  his  home,  wrote  this: — 

"  The  sun  athwart  the  cloud  thought  it  no  sin 
To  use  my  land  to  put  his  rainbow  in." 


The  evening  closed  with  the  "Concord  Hymn" 
sung  to  the  tune  of  "Old  Hundred,"  in  which  all 
present  were  asked  to  join. 


128  THE  EMERSON  CENTENARY 


CONCORD  HYMN : 

SUNG  AT  THE   COMPLETION   OF    THE   BATTLE   MONUMENT, 
APRIL   19,  1836. 

BY  the  rude  bridge  that  arched  the  flood, 
Their  flag  to  April's  breeze  unfurled, 

Here  once  the  embattled  farmers  stood, 
And  fired  the  shot  heard  round  the  world. 

The  foe  long  since  in  silence  slept ; 

Alike  the  conqueror  silent  sleeps ; 
And  Time  the  ruined  bridge  has  swept 

Down  the  dark  stream  which  seaward  creeps. 

On  this  green  bank,  by  this  soft  stream, 

We  set  to-day  a  votive  stone  ; 
That  memory  may  their  deed  redeem, 

When,  like  our  sires,  our  sons  are  gone. 

Spirit,  that  made  those  heroes  dare 
To  die,  and  leave  their  children  free, 

Bid  Time  and  Nature  gently  spare 
The  shaft  we  raise  to  them  and  thee. 


APPENDIX 


APPENDIX 

PROFESSOR  GEORGE  ADAM  SMITH  of  Glasgow,  who  was 
unexpectedly  prevented  from  attending  the  dinner  of  the 
Social  Circle,  writes,  under  date  of  May  23,  1903  :  — 

"  I  had  hoped  to  get  to  Concord  to  represent  my  coun 
try  at  the  great  memorial  of  one  as  highly  honoured  with 
us  as  with  you.  ...  I  enclose  the  letter  from  Scottish 
(and  a  few  English)  admirers  of  Mr.  Emerson.  The 
number  could  easily  have  been  quadrupled." 

In  sending  his  signature  to  the  letter  mentioned  by  Pro 
fessor  Smith,  Sir  Leslie  Stephen  wrote  to  Mr.  Campbell : 

"  I  should  be  proud  to  think  that  any  value  could  be 
attached  to  my  expression  of  respect  and  admiration  for 
Emerson.  No  man  of  his  time,  I  think,  had  a  loftier  or 
purer  character,  or  did  more  to  raise  the  intellectual  level 
of  his  contemporaries.  ...  I  can  never  read  his  writings 
without  being,  for  the  time  at  least,  a  better  man." 

Among  the  letters  referred  to  by  the  Chairman  were 
the  following :  — 

REVUE  DBS  DEUX  MONDES, 
CABINET  DU  DIRECT-BOB  15,  RUE  DE  L'UNIVERSITE, 

LUNDI  ET  VENDREDI  PARIS,  le  2  Mai  1903. 

DE   3  A   5   HEURE8. 

M.  F.  Brunetiere  serait  heureux,  tant  en  son  nom  per 
sonnel  que  comme  directeur  de  la  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes 


132  APPENDIX 

si  les  circonstances  lui  avaient  permis  de  prendre  part  au 
Banquet  que  le  Social  Circle  de  Concord  va  ce'le'brer  en 
1'honneur  du  grand  penseur  Americain :  Ralph  Waldo 
Emerson. 

Mais  s'il  est  priv£  du  plaisir  d'y  assister  il  tient  a  t£- 
moigner  de  son  admiration  pour  celui  qui  sera  le  he'ros  de 
cette  fete  et  il  prie  M.  le  President  Keyes  de  vouloir  bien 
etre  1'interprete  de  ses  sentiments. 

30  HYDE  PARK  GATE,  LONDON. 
April  30,  1903. 

Dr.  Stanton  Coit  begs  to  thank  the  Social  Circle  in  Con 
cord  for  their  kind  invitation  to  the  banquet  on  May  25th. 
He  regrets  that  he  cannot  be  present,  but  although  so  far 
away  he  is  doing  what  he  can  to  celebrate  the  anniversary 
of  Emerson's  birthday.  A  special  service  will  be  held  on 
Sunday,  May  24,  at  the  West  London  Ethical  Society  in 
memory  of  Emerson  when  Dr.  Coit  will  deliver  a  com 
memoration  address  on  Emerson. 

JOHN  S.  KEYES,  ESQ. 

4  LAVEKOCKBANK  ROAD,  EDINBURGH. 

May  8,  1903. 
JOHN  S.  KEYES,  ESQ. 

DEAR  SIB:  —  I  beg  to  thank  you,  and  through  you 
the  "  Social  Circle  of  Concord,"  for  the  great  honour  done 
me  in  inviting  me  to  the  banquet  on  the  centenary  of  Mr. 
Emerson's  birthday.  I  am  only  sad  that  as  an  octogena 
rian,  I  am  now  too  old  to  undertake  all  that  my  attendance 
in  Concord  would  mean. 

I  know  not  that  I  ever  met  on  earth  a  man  of  the  no 
bility  of  Emerson  :  it  was  a  moral  exaltation  simply  to 
have  seen  him.  That  I  did  see  him  has  been  one  of  the 


APPENDIX  133 

calms  of  my  life :  reverence  and  love  always  accompany 
my  memory  of  the  evening  I  spent  with  him. 

It  will  always  be  a  joy  to  know  that  I  was  associated 
with  those  five  hundred  Glasgow  University  Student  Voices 
which  Mr.  Emerson  himself  spoke  of  as  his  *'  Fairest 
Laurel." 

I  do  hope  you  and  the  Circle  will  readily  sympathize 
with  me  in  my  sorrow  not  to  be  present  on  such  a  memor 
able  occasion  of  the  honouring  of  Emerson. 

Wishing  you  and  the  Circle  the  full  joy  of  success  on 
that  auspicious  May  twenty-fifth,  I  am, 
Most  respectfully, 

Yours  and  theirs, 

JAMES  HUTCHISON  STIRLING. 


30  NEWBATTLE  TERRACE,  EDINBURGH. 
14  May,  1903. 

DEAR  SIR  :  —  I  have  to  thank  you  very  heartily  for 
your  kind  invitation  to  the  banquet  which  the  "  Social 
Circle  in  Concord  "  are  to  give  on  the  25th  inst.,  in  honour 
of  Emerson's  centenary. 

It  is  a  real  pleasure  to  me  to  hear  of  this  banquet  in 
memory  of  my  Uncle's  much  loved  and  highly  appreciated 
friend ;  and  it  is  with  deep  regret  that  I  have  to  decline 
the  invitation  to  be  present,  so  kindly  tendered  me,  on  the 
grounds  of  distance  from  Concord  and  my  many  engage 
ments.  But  tho'  absent  in  body,  I  shall  be  with  you  in 
spirit  on  the  memorable  twenty-fifth  of  May,  and  heartily 
wish  success  to  the  celebration. 

With  many  thanks  and  kind  wishes, 
1  am,  yours  sincerely, 

ALEX.  CARLYLE. 
JOHN  S.  KEYES,  ESQ., 
CONCORD,  U.  S.  A. 


134  APPENDIX 

BALLIOL  COLLEGE, 

May  3,  1903. 

DEAR  SIR  :  —  Will  you  express  to  the  members  of  the 
Social  Circle  of  Concord  my  great  regret  that  I  cannot  ac 
cept  their  kind  invitation.  Emerson  teaches  us  not  to  lay 
too  much  weight  on  the  conditions  of  time  and  space,  but 
they  sometimes  come  in  one's  way  in  the  details  of  prac 
tice.  I  heartily  sympathize  with  you  in  doing  honour  to 
one  who  has  done  so  much  to  elevate  the  tone  of  literature 
and  to  encourage  ideal  ways  of  thinking  among  all  Eng 
lish  speaking  people. 

I  am  much  obliged  to  the  Social  Circle  for  the  kindness 
of  this  invitation.  I  am, 

Very  respectfully, 

E.  CAIRD. 


HOUSE  OF  COMMONS, 
May  7,  1903. 

DEAR  SIR  :  —  Permit  me  to  thank  the  members  of  the 
Social  Circle  in  Concord  for  their  very  kind  invitation  to 
be  present  at  the  banquet  to  be  held  on  the  hundredth 
anniversary  of  the  birth  of  the  most  illustrious  citizen  of 
Concord,  and  to  express  my  sincere  regret  that  it  is  impos 
sible  for  me  to  leave  England  at  present,  and  have  the 
pleasure  of  attending  this  celebration.  I  had  the  honour 
and  pleasure  of  knowing  Mr.  Emerson,  and  retain  the 
most  vivid  recollection  of  the  charm  of  his  manner  and 
conversation.  No  life  and  no  character  better  deserves 
to  be  commemorated  by  the  people  of  New  England  than 
his  does.  Believe  me, 

Very  faithfully  yours, 

JAMES  BRTCE. 

CHAIRMAN  OF  THE  COMMITTEE. 


APPENDIX  135 

UNIVERSITY  OF  EDINBURGH, 
May  19,  1903. 

DEAR  SIR  :  —  I  must  apologize  for  the  delay  in  reply 
ing  to  your  most  kind  invitation  to  the  banquet  of  the 
"  Social  Circle  in  Concord  "  on  May  twenty-fifth,  the  an 
niversary  of  the  birthday  of  its  most  distinguished  mem 
ber,  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson.  The  delay  was  caused  by 
my  absence  on  the  continent,  my  letters  not  being  for 
warded. 

It  would  have  given  me  the  greatest  pleasure,  had  it 
been  possible,  to  be  present  at  your  banquet  in  the  flesh, 
as  I  shall  certainly  be  in  the  spirit,  on  Monday  night. 
The  spell  of  Emerson's  home  does  not  lose  its  power  as 
the  years  go  by,  and  I  have  myself  had  the  great  pleasure 
of  visiting  the  scenes  round  which  his  memory  clings,  and 
others  in  your  beautiful  Concord. 

May  I  ask  you  to  be  so  kind  as  to  convey  to  the  other 
members  of  your  "  Social  Circle  "  my  regrets  that  I  can 
not  avail  myself  of  the  invitation  with  which  you  have 
honoured  me. 

Believe  me, 

Yours  sincerely, 

JAMES  SETH. 
JOHN  S.  KEYES,  ESQ., 
CONCORD,  MASS. 


PALERMO, 
5  Maggio,  1903. 

lLLmo.  SiGr.  PRESIDENTS  :  —  Dolente  di  non  potere  assis- 
tere  al  simposio  che  cotesto  Circolo  Sociale  terra  in  onore 
del  grande  idealista  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  nel  centesimo 
anniversario  della  sua  nascita,  prego  Lei  Signer  John  S. 
Keyes  di  volermi  rappresentare  in  tale  fausta  ricorrenza 


136  APPENDIX 

e  di  voler  porgere  ai  socii  tutti  di  cotesto  nobile  Sodalizio 
il  mio  affettuoso  saluto  nel  nome  dell'  immortale  pensatore, 
le  cui  opere  sono  il  mio  vademecum  e  il  porto  nel  quale  is 
raccoglie  il  mio  spirito  sconf ortato  dallo  scetticismo  in- 
vadente. 

Le  stringo  fraternamente  la  mano 
H  suo  devotissimo, 

ANDREA  Lo  FORTE  RANDI. 


In  addition  to  the  foregoing  letters,  formal  expressions 
of  regret  for  their  inability  to  be  present  were  received 
from  the  following :  — 

Giosue  Carducci,  Bologna. 

Professor  A.  V.  Dicey,  All  Souls  College,  Oxford. 

Shadworth  H.  Hodgson,  London. 

Rudyard  Kipling,  Sussex,  England. 

Sir  Frederick  Pollock,  London. 

Herbert  Spencer,  Brighton,  England. 

Bernard  Bosanquet,  Oxshott,  Surrey,  England. 


THE   SOCIAL   CIRCLE   IN   CONCORD 
MAY,  1903 

JOHN  SHEPARD  KETES  HENRY  DINOLEY  COOLIDGK 

JULIUS  MICHAEL  SMITH  WILLIAM  LORENZO  EATON 

1 1  K  s  KV  FRANCIS  SMITH  JOHN  LEACH  GILMORE 

EDWARD  WALDO  EMERSON  SAMUEL  HOAR 

WILLIAM  HENRY  HUNT  GEORGE  EUGENE  TITCOMR 

DAVID  GOODWIN  LANO  WILLIAM  WHEELER 

ALFRED  MUNROE  LOREN  BENJAMIN  MACDONALD 

PRKSCOTT  KEYES  STEDMAN  BUTTRICK 

WOODWARD  HUDSON  HARVEY  WHEELER 

RICHARD  FAY  BARRETT  FRANCIS  AUGUSTINE  HOUSTON 

EDWARD  JARVIS  BARTLETT  THOMAS  HOLLIS 

CHARLES  EDWARD  BROWN  RUSSELL  ROBB 

WILLIAM  HENRY  BROWN  FREDERIC  ALCOTT  PRATT 
ADAMS  TOLMAN 

CENTENARY  COMMITTEES 

Executive 

SAMUEL  HOAR 

LOREN  BENJAMIN  MACDONALD    THOMAS  HOLLIS 
WILLIAM  LORENZO  EATON          EDWABD  JARVIS  BAHTLETT 

On  the  Dinner 

JOHN  SHEPARD  KEYES 

JOHN  LEACH  GILMORE  RICHARD  FAY  BARRETT 

CHARLES  EDWARD  BROWN         WOODWARD  HUDSON 

On  Publication 

FREDERIC  ALCOTT  PRATT 
WILLIAM  LORENZO  EATON          WOODWARD  HUDSON 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


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JUN  11 


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MAR  6'68-ioAiV 


DEC  2  6  1969  1  3 


LD  21A-50w-12,'60 
(B6221slO)476B 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

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#>8fo, 


